LTF?

[+ngrrfan]

Has anyone else, besides myself, been an LTF?

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Has anyone else, besides myself, been an LTF?

Dunno. What is it?

 

EDIT: I doubt that I would be Last To Find. I know there are others behind me.

Edited February 3, 2010 by Gitchee-Gummee

[+boda]

Yes

 

We pulled up to a cache and got out of the car to hunt a cache we had DNFd a year earlier. Soon a truck pulled up and parked behind us. The driver got out, sat on a nearby rock and watched us. After I found the cache, I went up to talk to the driver. Turns out he was the cache owner. He was picking up his caches because he was being transferred and couldn't maintain them any more. As we left, we handed him the cache with our thanks and drove off.

 

As it turns out both he and we were over 50 miles from home, so it was a bit of a coincidence.

[+ngrrfan]

Yes

 

We pulled up to a cache and got out of the car to hunt a cache we had DNFd a year earlier. Soon a truck pulled up and parked behind us. The driver got out, sat on a nearby rock and watched us. After I found the cache, I went up to talk to the driver. Turns out he was the cache owner. He was picking up his caches because he was being transferred and couldn't maintain them any more. As we left, we handed him the cache with our thanks and drove off.

 

As it turns out both he and we were over 50 miles from home, so it was a bit of a coincidence.

Well here's what happened today. A cacher that is no longer in the area has archived several caches in the area and I offered to go collect the containers. I looked up the caches in question and saw that there were 5 to be done. 4 of them we (my partners and I) had done last year. The 5th one had been archived in 2008. We actually found it today and thus became the LTFs for the cache.

[+bittsen]

On the first cache I found, I was LTF.

It sort of makes me sad to know that maybe there was something I could have, or should have, done to keep the cache from disappearing but the reality is I replaced it exactly as I found it.

[+brslk]

On the first cache I found, I was LTF.

It sort of makes me sad to know that maybe there was something I could have, or should have, done to keep the cache from disappearing but the reality is I replaced it exactly as I found it.

 

This happened to me also in December. It wasn't a high muggle location and I don't think anyone saw me, but who knows?

I was tempted to place a new cache there once the CO archived it but didn't want it to appear I was the one who took it.

[+GrateBear]

Yep, there have been a couple LTFs for me. Only one I know why, as the area had construction work started a couple of days later. The others, they were in good shape, so don't know what happened.

[+beejay&esskay]

Has anyone else, besides myself, been an LTF?

Many, many times.

Some are only "technical" LTFs. (I found it, owner archived it with no mention of it being missing.)

And some are "hidden" LTFs. (I found it, nobody else did, owner replaced container and it continues to be found.)

 

But my very first LTF, in my first month of geocaching, I think I might have given away the location. Since then I have a "Potential LTF" bookmark list. Every find goes on it and doesn't come off until someone finds else finds it. And I frequently hold my breath wondering when someone will report the results of a search.

 

List currently has 39 entries...including a find I made nearly a year ago that no one else has reported searching for.

[+bittsen]

On the first cache I found, I was LTF.

It sort of makes me sad to know that maybe there was something I could have, or should have, done to keep the cache from disappearing but the reality is I replaced it exactly as I found it.

 

This happened to me also in December. It wasn't a high muggle location and I don't think anyone saw me, but who knows?

I was tempted to place a new cache there once the CO archived it but didn't want it to appear I was the one who took it.

 

If anyone wants to help me get back to where my first cache was, I will GLADLY go to replace the cache. It was on Maui and the cache was about 5 feet above the sea level. I'm sure a wave just came along and whooshed it away.

[+HouseOfDragons]

I've been LTF on a cache as the Royal Parks insisted that all caches be removed from their property recently. I went to remove an archived & locked cache and rescue the TBs/coins and got to log LTF in return.

 

It was a shame.

[+Wooden Cyclist]

The Michigan Geocaching Association (MiGo) maintains the MiGo Rescue Mission to insure that all archived geocaches not confirmed as removed are checked on. So far 123 cachers have "rescued" 483 archived caches. When they do find the archived cache, retrieve it and sign the log, it would be an LTF.

 

So far I have searched for two and found one of them so I guess I have one LTF.

[+kunarion]

been an LTF?

Yes, with my apologies. Several local caches were humming along fine, til I came along. Well... they were soaking wet, broken, or missing stages, and had probably been that way for a long time. My team added a "Needs Maintenance" log, and some of those caches were immediately archived.

 

Not that they didn't need it. I'm just sayin'.

[+tango501]

so far every cache I have found was a LTF

but when somebody else finds I get bumped off the LTF list

[Skippermark]

Yes. We've been both FTF and LTF on a couple caches. I guess that makes us the OTF - Only to Find.

[Skippermark]

The Michigan Geocaching Association (MiGo) maintains the MiGo Rescue Mission to insure that all archived geocaches not confirmed as removed are checked on. So far 123 cachers have "rescued" 483 archived caches. When they do find the archived cache, retrieve it and sign the log, it would be an LTF.

I think it's great that there's a central location where people can go and look to see which caches are still out there but no longer active.

 

Is the "claim find" thing on the website for those who want to keep track of how many they've picked up because anyone could pick up an archived cache and log it as a find if it was still there and they signed the log.

Edited February 3, 2010 by Skippermark

[+Harry Dolphin]

Unfortunately, I have been LTF on a few. Hidden back exactly as we found it. Got muggled. Not replaced. Archived. Oh, well. Been a few that I've watched, to make sure I wasn't LTF.

[+EscapeFromFlatland]

I've had a few LTFs in Iraq.

1 was in an area that had construction start shortly after the find.

The rest are on a base that shut down.

[+BrrrMo]

I've had a few LTFs in Iraq.

1 was in an area that had construction start shortly after the find.

The rest are on a base that shut down.

 

Thanks for your service.

[+jaroot]

Only one so far. The cache was apparently on private property (for over 4 years) and the owner/manager was spying on me from across the freeway. I didn't see him. I found the cache logged it and by the time I got back to my truck the owner/manager was there and wanted to know what I was doing. I explained it to him and he gave me lecture about property rights ect. (the cache was just out side of a fence line) He tried to say that the public road that I was parked on was his property also. So as I was writing my field note he went out to the cache grabbed it and brought it to me and told me to take it. Not wanting to irritate him further I took it and returned it to the CO.

[+Wooden Cyclist]

The Michigan Geocaching Association (MiGo) maintains the MiGo Rescue Mission to insure that all archived geocaches not confirmed as removed are checked on. So far 123 cachers have "rescued" 483 archived caches. When they do find the archived cache, retrieve it and sign the log, it would be an LTF.

I think it's great that there's a central location where people can go and look to see which caches are still out there but no longer active.

 

Is the "claim find" thing on the website for those who want to keep track of how many they've picked up because anyone could pick up an archived cache and log it as a find if it was still there and they signed the log.

 

The "Claim Find" is used in two instances.

 

One. A cacher finds the archived cache and removes it from the area.

 

Two. The cacher searches the archived cache location and feel confident that is is gone or finds evidence that it is gone.

 

The cacher then posts a note on the cache page that states that they have verified that the cache is no longer there.

 

When "Claim Find" is chosen. The cache is moved from the unverified list to the pending list.

 

When the MiGo representative that maintains the list checks to see that the proper steps have been followed the cache is moved to the verified list.

[Mr.Yuck]

I can think of twice that I've been LTF, and in both cases I couldn't help but feel terribly guilty, even though I'm positive no one saw me. Both were in pretty busy City Parks. One (close to home), I actually replaced, and have become the official maintenance person for the owner, who lives out of town. The other was at least 70 miles from home, and I swear I'm going to give the owner a replacement when I see them at an event. Even though I've missed my chance to do that about 3 or 4 times.

[+BlueDeuce]

It's Michigan Geocaching Organization not Association.

[+Coqui572]

I was about to tell the story about a fellow geocacher that had a LTF, but decided to check my record first. And behold, without me realizing I have an LTF. I've been trying to remember this cache, and even though I have a vague memory of the day, I'm pretty sure there were no other human beings in the area. The thing with this one is that it was hidden in a tree behind a park's landscape... maybe a city worker muggled it?? Who knows...

 

My friend GiosanVE inadvertly became an LTF after I accompanied him to a cache that I had previously found. An essential part of the cache hide was missing, so I posted a maintenance note on the cache page. The CO decided to archive it instead of fixing. Sorry! lol

[+beenhere]

A few times. I replace a missing cache if I find parts of it. One time I logged an ammo box that had several DNFs on it the same miniute the CO archived it. Why all the DNFs I'll never know as I found it very easly, just whish I saw the archive before I got home so I could have picked up the cache. Was LTF twice on the same day on caches that were on my three day old list and had gotten archived.

[Skippermark]

The "Claim Find" is used in two instances.

Thanks for the explanation. When I first saw it, I thought no one could log the archived cache until an admin approved it.

 

Where I live, there are a lot of archived caches that are still out in the field, so I proposed something like that for here. The idea didn't get much feedback.

 

In the our local forums, people earn "medals" for different things, like finding 75 puzzle caches, finding a certain number of lonely caches, attending a certain number of CITOs and things like that. I thought it would be a great add-on. Pick up 10 archived caches, get a bronze medal. 20, get a silver & so on. People usually go crazy to earn the medals, but there was no interest.

 

We also have a lot of caches in need of TLC around here, wet logs, damaged containers, owners not maintaining them. I thought the two could be combined into one, where if someone picks up an archived cache or replaces an active but damaged cache, they would get credit for it towards a medal.

[+zurichuk]

I like this thread, one of the things I do after finding it cache is watch it until it is found again. Or after placing a TB / coin I follow it until it moves.

 

So far I have not been LTF on any of my finds, I know the day will come, probabilities and all that, but it is fun watching. Alas, though, a coin I placed in a cache 2 weeks ago has been reported missing 2 finders later and hasn't turned up yet, maybe I will be a LTM.

[+ngrrfan]

Actually, the intent of this thread is/was (?) to find out, or share experiences, how many people found archived caches that hadn't been picked up, or at least verified gone, because the CO wasn't able to do it.

 

I had a good time going after the 5 caches even knowing that the possibilities of making a "find" was slim. The fun was in the challenge of finding something I'd found before, if it was still there, and then picking up the container for the CO. In this case the CO, from what I can deduce, seems to be in the military and is no longer stationed in the area yet his caches are still fairly active here. I don't mind one bit doing minor maintenance on the active ones simply because they are along a well traveled highway that I use several times a year.

 

And there is a "double find" involved. One is the find of a cache you've done but needs to be picked up. The other find is finding an archived cache that you haven't logged before. That's what happened this time. We found a cache that we didn't know existed simply because it was archived before we started hunting down that road.

 

At least now the online logs read that the cache has been picked up or verified gone so others won't waste their time hunting for something that isn't there.

Edited February 5, 2010 by ngrrfan

[+Harry Dolphin]

Actually, the intent of this thread is/was (?) to find out, or share experiences, how many people found archived caches that hadn't been picked up, or at least verified gone, because the CO wasn't able to do it.

 

Ah. But that's not what you asked! I've gone on a few TB rescue missions. Cache archived with TB. But, these were caches that I'd found before. Some cache owners archive caches rather than perform maintenance. Rescued two bugs. One cache was muggled and trashed. On one, I read the note in the log, and determined that the bug had been picked up by another geocacher. So, these four were archived, but not picked up. Nor were they listed on another site.

Once, I planned a trip to Maine, and bookmarked all the caches in the neighborhoods. (I bookmark two or three times the number I could possibly search for.) Downloaded the pocket query a few days before I left. One was archived and 'removed' two days before we found it. But, we weren't LTF on that one. Two more cachers found it a week later.

So, I suspect that some COs lie when they say that they removed the cache when they archived it.

[+racer2814]

Only one so far. The cache was apparently on private property (for over 4 years) and the owner/manager was spying on me from across the freeway. I didn't see him. I found the cache logged it and by the time I got back to my truck the owner/manager was there and wanted to know what I was doing. I explained it to him and he gave me lecture about property rights ect. (the cache was just out side of a fence line) He tried to say that the public road that I was parked on was his property also. So as I was writing my field note he went out to the cache grabbed it and brought it to me and told me to take it. Not wanting to irritate him further I took it and returned it to the CO.

 

If it's a dead end road and they own the property on both sides, they can and very well may have taken over ownership of the road.

[+mbharpman]

Has anyone else, besides myself, been an LTF?

I was the last to find GC130C0 "R2D2, Is That You?"

 

There had already been "Needs Maintenance" logs that I hadn't looked at.

 

I found the bottom half of the cache with log so I signed it and got the smiley.

 

I posted that it was only half there and then it was archived.

 

There is another cache there now that I haven't looked for.