Stumbling onto a cache...

[+canpaddle]

About two years ago, my caching partner (GF) and myself were in Wisconson birdwatching, when she said theres a cache hidden here. I came over to where she was and sure enough a regular ammo box, complete with swag and log book. I signed the log and logged it in as a find.

We did not even have our GPS unit with us that day.

 

About two winters ago, myself and another friend of mine were looking for a cache up the North Shore, when I found a Letter Box Cache, by accident, which had stuff in it and a log book, which I signed.

I did not know anything about Letterboxing then, and still to this day really dont either. I just logged my username thats it.

 

Have you ever stumbled onto a cache by accident, or while searching for a multi stage, finding the final without the coords. by accident??

 

Some would call this luck. I call it a determined deep down drive, a sense of competiveness, a keep on going not giving up, "get her done" attitude.

Not luck, determination.

Edited October 28, 2009 by canpaddle

[+Knight2000]

Have you ever stumbled onto a cache by accident, or while searching for a multi stage, finding the final without the coords. by accident??

Never.

[+birder428]

Yes, I did. I was looking for a cache, and when I found one in the area, I stopped looking elsewhere. I thought it was odd that it was a letterbox, but just chalked it up to getting my caches mixed up. When I went home to log it, I read the previous logs first. A few others had logged it as... "I found the cache, and the nearby letterbox one, too! Surprised that they were so close together. " Whoops. I didn't find it - I had stopped looking too early. Went back out a few weeks later and found the 'real' cache.

[+Wyatt45]

This is funny...especially when it happened to me. I was out caching with a friend of mine, Jax78. We were on a very busy / rural road. When we parted ways, I decided to pull off the road a little further down to look at a spot to place a cache. I looked around and found a perfect location...i looked further and spotted a cammo jar. I signed the log, did an internet search on my phone and located the online log.

 

About 2 months later, another friend who didn't know I geocached, nor I him, left me a voicemail and asked me if I was Wyatt45. I said I was and we started talking about all things Geocaching. Later, I looked at his caches and realized the one I accidently found was one of his! Coincidences all around. Looks like we think the same in terms of geosense and where to place a cache.

 

Wyatt45

[+Team Cotati]

Yes, once Mrs. Team Cotati found one that way when we were out on a non-geocaching hike. You know it just looked like a cache ought to be there and sure enough there was. Fortunately we had the trusty Goldie with us and got the coords and logged the thing.

 

Sweetness.

[+bittsen]

My first cache ever was stumbled upon. Thats how I got started in this hobby.

[+captnemo]

Happened twice to me.

 

First time I was looking for a geocache and found a letterbox, didn't find the cache for a year.

 

Second time, I found the cahce I was looking for and on the way back stumbled onto another cache. The only problem was it was less then 0.1 mile from the one I was looking for. When I went online I found that the original cache was lost and had been replaced with the second one, It appears that both caches existed and the CO just lost track of where the first one was hid. Emailed the CO, not sure what happened.

 

Signed all the logs, and logged all the caches I could.

[bradly22]

I was doing a multi the other day and could not locate all the needed information to get to the end, then later on that day stumbled upon the cache.

[Tir19 & GreenTerra]

There is a small (2 lane) bridge that was built on top of a narrower older stone arch bridge. A staircase beside the bridge was a draw to me so one day I finally stopped and found a walkway under the structure along with a brass sign explaining what had been done. As I read the plaque, I thought that this would be a nice place for a cache and at the same time my hand reached around the railing and felt a small plastic lock and lock.....

Mill bridge GC19ZGR

[GOF and Bacall]

It happens all the time. I have found caches that way on more than one occasion myself. I even have an FTF on a new cache I found while looking for a place to hide one. It had not been published yet.

[+briansnat]

I once found a great cache hiding spot and started poking around for a place to hide an ammo box. Sure enough when I found the perfect spot there was already an ammo box there. Turns out that it was the final stage of a multi that started several miles away. I found the cache and logged my find.

[+dronnord]

It happens all the time. I have found caches that way on more than one occasion myself. I even have an FTF on a new cache I found while looking for a place to hide one. It had not been published yet.

 

Twice it has happened to me...once I was placeing a cache in a tree and spotted a camo`d Lock N Lock..opened it up signed it and realized it was a new one from a guy I worked with..LOL..waited until it came out and logged about one minute after it hit the internet..the other one was in a museum back yard.The funny thing is I took my wife to the museum because we were on holiday and she was " P O`d' at me for geocaching when we were 3000 km`s from home...really !...CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? so I am walking around this Acadian museum and I decide I like the looks of the apples..lean in to scoop one and see a lunchbox hanging off a branch.. ..geosense tingling,hands shaking, I signed the log and got the heck out of there before the wife caught me..LOL...she`s my partner but my obsession isn`t hers..u No...so that`s my story..all true and blue

[+SHENNY-TLC]

This has happened to us twice within a few days of each other. both of them were places we were going to place a cache. The first one was in a cemetary and we were wandering around looking for a good place to put one as we knew this one did not have a cache in it. So right at the back there is this fantastic tree perfect place for a small. Reach into where we would think was the perfect crook in the tree and low and behold we hit plastic?? What the???? yep a cache. We opened it and signed the log and just figured the cache had not been activated yet. Here's the strangest part of this one we waited and waited for it to publish and it never did. So out to the cemetary to get readings and looked for the owner and no one came forth so we decided that the residents of the cemetary liked us so much they put one there for us to claim LOL .

The second one was a few days later. The boychild had the perfect spot so off we go to place the cache. As we walk up to it dadgum there is one that was not there before. Well poo lol signed the log claimed the ftf and waited. this one was published with in a few hours of us getting home. We were releived acctually that it was published we would really be wondering if it haden't been LOL

[ao318]

I had found a letter box by accident and thought it was the cache. When I got home I noticed some of the logs talking about the "letterbox" about 10' from the actual cache. I had to go back and find the actual cache later.

[+jhauser42]

I was recently looking for a puzzle cache that had been replaced a couple of times since 2007. It was recently missing again, so when I got the notification that the cache had been replaced, I headed on over to take a look for it. Now, of course, I could not find the replacement cache, but I did find the original! Very interesting experience. Here is the log.

 

I have also found letterboxes 3 times while looking for caches. The first one I signed before I realized what I had found, the second I knew was there from previous logs, and the third was in such an obvious hiding place that I had to look there even though the location really did not fit the cache description.

[+mdplayers]

My son found the end of a multi by accident. He was playing around an old stone wall and got curious about the nooks and crannys and found the box. He dutifully signed the log and got the GC# so I could figure out which cache it was. We didn't take the find on it since we didn't complete the entire multi.

 

We also spotted a stage of a multi while walking along a path. We were heading for a regular cache (Hubby was with me and he doesnt like multis so much) and saw a container tucked in the hollow of a tree. We hid it just a little better so a non-cacher wouldn't spot it and be scared by the possible explosive device (3x3 container) in a tree in the middle of a state park.

 

We have found Letterboxes several times while searching for caches.

[+tber1981]

I found one today as a matter of fact. I don't think it was a cache per-say. There was no marking on it, just a small "disposable" Tupperware-type container covered in black tape. Inside was a small logbook and a stamp. Was this a letterbox? I've never seen a stamp in a cache before. I got the coordinates and I will look it up to see if I can find out about it. The weird thing about it was it was right out in the open, like someone found it on accident and just tossed it in the woods. It was visible from a main trail, which I have never seen before.

[k_statealan]

I was heading to a cache called "Red" when I spotted a big, red folgers coffee can in the distance perched on a tree stump. I hadn't looked at the cache name yet, so I didn't know I was looking for something red. Nor was I expecting to see a cache, because the one I was going after was still supposedly about 700' away. I opened it up and sure enough, it was a cache. Didn't know at the time if it was the end of a multi or a mystery, but after looking fruitlessly for the next one and then seeing the name of the one I couldn't find, I realized that I had already found it several hundred feet back.

 

Had I not been in an area with extensive bushwacking, heat and humidity after hiking all day and storms rolling in, I would have taken it back, but I was headed in the opposite direction. I marked the location and posted the temporary coords in a needs maintenance log. The next cacher along, 3.5 months later, took it to its original coords.