First to Find *and* Last to Find?

[+ArtieD]

Something interesting happened in my neck of the woods just now. I got notification that a local cache (GC1F7YX) was archived by its owner due to possibly being missing. Nothing too unusual there, except I found it kind of annoying that the owner couldn't even find the time to maintain the relatively new cache.

 

At any rate, I was FTF on that cache. A few people looked for it after I found it and came up empty. Since the cache owner elected to archive instead of repair, it made me both FTF and LTF. It's kind of a dubious honor I suppose, but I was wondering if that has happened to any of you all?

[Skippermark]

Sort of. I had a cache that lived for about an hour.

 

Placed a cache in a great little park that's maybe 500 square feet at the most. The FTF found it about 30 minutes after being published, only to have it get archived about 30 minutes later because it was too close to the final of a puzzle that ended there.

 

The puzzle was a bit older so it may not have had a final coordinate waypoint posted and slipped past the reviewer, but the FTF was the first and only finder.

Edited October 15, 2008 by Skippermark

[+DavidMac]

How about first and last to DNF?

 

I felt bad for the owner, since apparently it took some working to get it published. In the meantime, the container disappeared by the time the cache was listed.

Edited October 15, 2008 by DavidMac

[+CaddyCachers]

Something interesting happened in my neck of the woods just now. I got notification that a local cache (GC1F7YX) was archived by its owner due to possibly being missing. Nothing too unusual there, except I found it kind of annoying that the owner couldn't even find the time to maintain the relatively new cache.

 

At any rate, I was FTF on that cache. A few people looked for it after I found it and came up empty. Since the cache owner elected to archive instead of repair, it made me both FTF and LTF. It's kind of a dubious honor I suppose, but I was wondering if that has happened to any of you all?

 

Why don't you offer to adopt it? Interesting question then would be does that nullify your FTF if you become the owner??

[Skippermark]

Why don't you offer to adopt it? Interesting question then would be does that nullify your FTF if you become the owner??

He wasn't the cache owner when he made the find, so I don't see any reason why he'd change his find status if he adopted it.

[+StarBrand]

Something interesting happened in my neck of the woods just now. I got notification that a local cache (GC1F7YX) was archived by its owner due to possibly being missing. Nothing too unusual there, except I found it kind of annoying that the owner couldn't even find the time to maintain the relatively new cache.

 

At any rate, I was FTF on that cache. A few people looked for it after I found it and came up empty. Since the cache owner elected to archive instead of repair, it made me both FTF and LTF. It's kind of a dubious honor I suppose, but I was wondering if that has happened to any of you all?

 

Why don't you offer to adopt it? Interesting question then would be does that nullify your FTF if you become the owner??

You can't adopt an archived listing.....

[Skippermark]

Well there you go. Solves that.

[btrodrigues]

Happened to me twice. In both cases, the cache was filled with water and could no longer be considered a valid cache. Only difference is that one of them was active for more than a year and the other was active for a day...

 

They both got disabled and then ended up forcibly archived by the reviewer after a few months without news from the owners.

[Dj Storm]

I have 5 FTF's which are also LTF's, where the cache is still in place! I suppose there is little incentive to find caches in remote locations, especially once the FTF was grabbed.

I scored my first FTF on a cache 273 days after publishing. Apart from a maintenance visit, the cache wasn't found (logged) by the STF 385 days later.

[+adonis32]

I was FTF on a new cache under active rail road tracks. When I asked about the listing at an event later that day word got back to a reviewer and it was archived.

[+The Leprechauns]

The phenomenon is not a new one. This urban micro was hidden a block from my office -- a film canister in a hole within a low wall, with coordinates more than 100 feet off. I was the only finder. Looking back at my logs from July 2002 -- my second month of geocaching -- it was amusing to read my reaction to one of my first urban micro hunts. I've gotten more used to them!

[+ReadyOrNot]

Only happens when I need ammo cans

[+GRANPA ALEX]

I was LTF on a cache that the owner archived soon after I had found it, he had had some complaint with his reviewer and responded by archiving his caches.

 

Many months later, I was in the area again (out-of-state) and hunting caches that were new since the last trip . . . I came upon the exact same cache by a dfifferent owner name . . . same log book, same container. I was FTF on this "new" cache.

 

Felt funny signing my name, under my own name in the log book . . . still feel strange claiming the find, what should one do?

[southpawaz]

I've been first, last and only on a cache that was published, found after publication to have been placed in an off limits wilderness area, then unpublished (not archived). It was a hike I wanted to do so I went and got it and the TB inside that was left by the hider. No smiley, though.

[+scavok]

I was the first and last on a 4 star hide only because in finding it I managed to break the intricate container.

 

Oops!

[+Beleman]

Me and my girlfriend Hafelja were FTF and LTF at GC1ECC8 some months ago. We found the cache after some problems at the last two stages, all other cachers failed. Some days later the owner disabled the cache and this week he changed the listings, archived the cache and hid it as a traditional again (GC1H4HF).

Maybe, we can do an FTF again tomorrow.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

There was a cache near the Zimbabwe/Zambia border that caught my eye when I was looking for caching opportunities (they're very limited) when I was making plans to travel to the area on business last November. It had been in place for almost a year without a find yet was only a few miles from where I was going to be staying. As it turned out I never got the opportunity to search for it but noticed upon my return that it was logged about a week later and subsequently archived a week after that.

[Whacked]

I suppose there is little incentive to find caches in remote locations, especially once the FTF was grabbed.

Is this what geocaching amounts to? FTF or not at all?

Pretty sad and a bit pathetic really.

[+Sioneva]

I suppose there is little incentive to find caches in remote locations, especially once the FTF was grabbed.

Is this what geocaching amounts to? FTF or not at all?

Pretty sad and a bit pathetic really.

 

Fortunately... no. That's not a common viewpoint.

[+Headhardhat]

Weirdest dang thing I had ever seen. There were three brand new caches that I was fortunate enough to FTF. I met Zuni for the first time during the third of three. I found out later that day that shortly after Zuni and I had left someone muggled all three and the owner archived them ever since.. I think they were up for about an hour or so...

 

Could not believe it.

 

-HHH

[+GSVNoFixedAbode]

This recent log caught my eye: in the back hills.

 

Best bit from the log (in high winds):

I was kneeling right against the rock wall trying to catch some breath, turned over a first slab, and in a flash I saw a 2-liter translucent plastic box (looking rather empty) shoot through my legs and up into the air. I could do nothing but watch the cache fly over the mountain tops like a balloon, and disappear into the distance.