Venting about a cache gone wrong while on a road trip.

[+gururyan]

I had a geocoin that needed to get some movement, one I had picked up locally. I saved it for my road trip to Dallas for the Guitar Show. Time would be tight, I began searching for areas I knew I would be making pit stops during the drive into Dallas once we got close. I began searching for an easy cache I could drop the geocoin in because, once again, we'd be in a rush and a long ways from home. My searching yielded a flood, no...a sea of micro caches all over Dallas. It is insane how many micros/nanos are around Dallas. When I did find a cache that could hold a coin, it involved a hike or some other thing that I just didn't have time for. Finally I found one in Plano that was "small" and would be close to an area I had to stop anyway en route to Dallas. Since I would be in a hurry, I looked at the log for clues and pictures. No clue, it was "too easy" as it said. The photos showed two different cachers holding a clear, rectangular case, something that would indeed hold a coin. Finally! A cache big enough to hold the geocoin! We get to the spot, nothing...the area you would expect and the area the GPS is pointing is behind a gated area. We frantically look around for the cache in the pictures. Nothing. We hop in the car and drive around the long wall to anther area just feet from were we were but on the other side of the wall. Nothing. We repeat this over next wall/fence and notice other comments talking about coming at the intersection of wall/fence from wrong directions as well. Time so flying, I must hurry. I am walking along the top of the wall trying see the clear rectangular box, still nothing. We have spent 45 minutes when we had 5. Finally, we spot the cache about 50 ft from where it was saying it was, and in the opposite direction. Worse yet, it is not the cache pictured by other finders. The cache has been downsized. It is NOT a small any longer, it is a MICRO. So now it's just like all the other micros surrounding Dallas. I'm so frustrated now given the time I have spent before the trip to secure a cache that is NOT a micro so I can quickly drop a traveling coin. You can understand my frustration no? Now here come the cops. My activity has gotten attention. We jump in the car and take off the back exit, no time for this, we are already way late. I had also asked the management of the property about the geocache on their property, both managers asked if that was some sort of ATM machine. So it's not looking like permission was even given for this cache. The cops would have made us tremendously late had we not slipped out right under their nose.

 

Would I be this upset if I hadn't been specifically looking for a cache large enough to move a coin? maybe not, but you see the frustration something as simple as changing your cache size but not changing it in the description can be no? Luckily I had a back-up plan for a last shot in Texas, right at the border, assuming it meant small when it said it. Frustrated and disappointed, I was happy to find a geocoin friendly cache a stone's throw from the border. It was my last hope.

 

Please take into consideration how important your descriptions, coordinates, size rating, and hints can be. They can and will affect others.

Edited April 17, 2010 by gururyan

[+Chrysalides]

I've always insisted that geocaching is bad for the blood pressure, while others wax lyrical about the health benefits of geocaching

 

I'm sorry about your bad experience. But remember, you're doing this because you think it's fun (I assume). There have been times when it's not fun for me as well. My plan for such situations is to mutter some swear word and move on.

Edited April 17, 2010 by Chrysalides

[+J the Goat]

While that sucks, was the movement of the coin so important that it had to screw up your trip? I do agree, mis-descriptions can be a bit of a drag, but nothing is perfect. Just chalk it up to experience, use it as a funny story for events, and move on.

[+power69]

that could have been an old archived cache too.

[toadie23]

I would of dropped the coin off on the WAY Home..

[+buttaskotch]

I can see that you are new to the game and made an admirable attempt to move the coin along, but remember its a game. If you didn't have time I am sure the coin could have waited or just gone to another cache back in your neck of the woods.

Again, its just a game

[+ngrrfan]

My take on the situation is that you thought you could make a quick stop and then be on the way and it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be.

 

You put the pressure on yourselves. If you didn't have a lot of time to spend, then after 10-15 minutes you should have moved on. The only time I will spend more than 20 minutes trying to find a hide is if I have the time to stay at least an hour, OR... I have the rest of the Monday Musketeers with me and none of us is willing to throw in the towel.

[+gururyan]

Time was part of the frustration since it was a park & grab labelled as "too easy" and because it's the furthest one I have found from its provided coordinates. But really got me was the lack of any caches larger than a micro in and around Dallas, I just wanted to drop a coin! So after a tiring search to locate one on our route, imagine the frustration when you get there and find out it has been downsized to a micro but still class itself a small, which would be able to hold said coin. I know it's a game, and I do find it fun and relaxing. But anybody can get annoyed with anything they love.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

My take on the situation is that you thought you could make a quick stop and then be on the way and it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be.

 

.

The main issue here is that the Cache was listed as the wrong size.

Edited April 17, 2010 by WRITE SHOP ROBERT

[+gururyan]

My take on the situation is that you thought you could make a quick stop and then be on the way and it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be.

 

.

The main issue here is that the Cache was listed as the wrong size.

 

Exactly, and this was not an extraneous error.

[+The Leprechauns]

That is odd. I visited the Dallas area last spring for about three days. I just checked my records, and I found ten caches that were small or regular, and I picked up several trackables. I especially remember going to a nice park a bit north of the airport that had no micros in it. Only two of the caches involved a hike of any significant distance.

 

While I wasn't specifically looking for caches bigger than a micro, I had no problem finding larger caches in the places I chose to visit for other reasons. If I wanted to avoid micros I would have filtered them out of my queries.

 

I think the same is true for most large urban areas. I would need to see comparative statistics before concluding that there's "something wrong" with the micros in Dallas. I sure enjoyed my trip there.

[+Printess Caroline]

You have my sympathy. I think that we've all had some sort of complication that could have been prevented with proper owner maintenance of the cache or its listing.

[+Printess Caroline]

But anybody can get annoyed with anything they love.

 

My husband makes that quite clear to me on occasion.

[+buttaskotch]

This actually reminded me about going out one day with a fellow cacher and finding his cache only to have him yell out some profanity when he saw the container. Someone had stolen his lock and lock and replaced it with a smaller, acrylic, fishing hook container that was not waterproof. So, who knows if it was owner error or someone taking the container and replacing with something else or putting a "throwaway" container out instead of logging a DNF

[+Knight2000]

This happened to us on a trip to Florida last fall. We took a bunch of trackables. We could not find an acceptable cache to put them in. (Well we did find one after a trek but realized we left them in the car.) It sucks because lots of people expected their bugs to be moved.

[4wheelin_fool]

Anything can go wrong if you are pressed for time. Usually everyone tends to drive extremely slow and disoriented.

 

However if you are out on a scenic drive and have nowhere special to go, then everyone on the road seems to be maniacal..

[Andronicus]

You have my sympathy. I think that we've all had some sort of complication that could have been prevented with proper owner maintenance of the cache or its listing.

+1

 

I went for a 1/1 FTF. I was first at GZ, but after searching for about an hour, I gave up. After posting my DNF, the CO posted that he had not placed the cache yet. When I ended up the 5th to find, I found it in the spot I had looked about 20 times. Bad COs are frusterating.

[+simpjkee]

I agree that when the cache container was changed the cache page should have been edited to reflect the change.

[+The Jester]

I don't see why you had so much trouble finding non-micro caches. I just previewed a PQ for the Dallas area, using zipcode 75226 and saw 500 small, regular or large caches within 17 miles, all 2/2 or easier.

[+Casting Crowns]

If I'm thinking of the same "two guys" that you talked about, they're known around these parts for taking pictures of the "wrong" cache container. I was looking for a cache they had found and already had the vision of the container in mind but it was COMPLETELY different. Made the hide more "difficult" than necessary. I got back in the car and told my friend about it and she said, "yes, that's what they do." Oh well, I guess that's how they get their jollies.

 

I agree with Robert, I believe the cache was mis-labled by the owner and nothing else. BTW....Dallas/Fort Worth IS flooded with micros....

[+Don_J]

My take on the situation is that you thought you could make a quick stop and then be on the way and it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be.

 

You put the pressure on yourselves. If you didn't have a lot of time to spend, then after 10-15 minutes you should have moved on. The only time I will spend more than 20 minutes trying to find a hide is if I have the time to stay at least an hour, OR... I have the rest of the Monday Musketeers with me and none of us is willing to throw in the towel.

 

And, please please, please don't go running off when you see the police approaching. You are an ambassador of our sport. When you hop in the car and make a hasty exit, you are now a suspect, and the cache becomes a bomb.

[+Don_J]

My take on the situation is that you thought you could make a quick stop and then be on the way and it wasn't as easy as you thought it would be.

 

.

The main issue here is that the Cache was listed as the wrong size.

 

Yep! Quite a few cache owners lose site of the fact that cache maintenance also extends to the cache listing. I have almost 150 active caches out there, and every single one of them has an accurate description. When someone visits one of my caches, I want them to have a pleasant experience.

[+Don_J]

Anything can go wrong if you are pressed for time. Usually everyone tends to drive extremely slow and disoriented.

 

However if you are out on a scenic drive and have nowhere special to go, then everyone on the road seems to be maniacal..

 

Wow!

Too True!