Luckiest moment while geocaching.

[+Coldgears]

So many negative threads about issues with geocaching (Like people not liking micro's) and injuries while caching and the like. Why not a positive thread? I had a REALLY lucky moment today and would like for you to share yours.

 

I spent about 20 minutes figuring out the easy online puzzle for this cache... I spent more time then I should have! Assuming the puzzle at the cache would be just as easy we left to get the cache. We found the cache after "digging" a little through the leaves (it hadn't been found in a while). So I go over to the sidewalk and open up the puzzle. We spent 30 minutes trying to figure it out... We just don't know my dog breeds (I only knew a few such as a beagle because my aunt has one and a dalmatian... Because it's a dalmatian)! We had to look up the pictures on the "cheat sheet" on google images... And even then we had major trouble. I never thought I would finish it! That was, until the lady that worked at the animal shelter the cache was hidden at came up to us and asked us what we were doing. I told her the truth... We were geocaching! She said she heard of it before and was really curious about the whole thing. Luckily for us, she knew all her dog breeds. She made a puzzle that would have taken a few more hours of painstaking google searching into a quick 2-4 minute puzzle... Once I got the correct coords I noticed it was a drive, I asked her if she wanted to follow us to the final as it was really close. She said she really didn't have anything else to do! We drove to the correct parking lot after a few dumb moves... (Going into the wrong parking lot.) We walked the path up to the cache, and as she was a lady she didn't come with me to get it. I bushwhacked through all the grass (luckily no poison ivy or thorn bushes). I then found in pretty quickly. I brought it out to show her, I really wanted to souvenir penny as I collect them, so I took it without leaving anything. I feel bad about that, I usually bring my cache trade bag. That's not really how the sport is played : (, I made this a one time exception because of how important souvenir pennies are too me! I gave her the GC code so she could look it up when she got home, and gave told her the name of the website.

 

I feel so lucky! I would have never finished this puzzle. In the puzzle you have to put certain dog breeds in a certain order. The issue is... You have to know what each dog looks like! I don't!

[+kwcahart]

I think this is great!! I get sick and tired of the "internet warriors" that flame everything someone says. I just had a very positive geocaching night with my sister-in-laws friend. We only found 5 caches tonight but afterward we met the girls and had a frosty at Wendy's. Very good day for sure. My friend powermower is a good guy to be around, anytime.

[+lvnitup]

My few geocaching experiences have built upon each other so that nearly every short trip from home with the kids is hilarious. I geocache primarily with my 4 y.o and 6 y.o. and sometimes hubby goes along. However, by far, my 4 y.o. loves the game more than the rest of us. Imagine if you will, every parking lot light post or structure that has one of those pole skirts, he is attempting to lift each and every one. All the while saying, "I'm looking for treasure!" I can only imagine what it looks like to the muggles around us. Or, checking out every stump, pile of sticks or looking under every rock. He doesn't quite understand all of the details yet.

[+pppingme]

Not my luckiest moment, but:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...71-76aa861615a8

 

The stinger is, I drove right by this that morning and didn't stop to get it because my wife thought it was too cold and wet out.

[+BuckeyeClan]

When we first started caching several years ago, we went to a nearby wooded park to find a couple. We found the first one no problem, and both daughters traded items for colored glass stones. Youngest daughter (3 at the time) insisted on carrying hers, and of course dropped it several times as we walked on down the trail. Each time we were able to quickly find it, until we got to GZ of cache #2. While we were searching, she dropped it again, and we just couldn't find it. So we're wandering around, poking and searching for both the cache and the stone, having no luck with either. We were about to give up on both, when I decided to go over *one more time* an area we had previously searched. Oh yay! I found the stone--lying 6 inches from the cache! Two finds in one!

[+randco]

My luckiest moment was finding a micro. The cache was published and our local FTF hounds were all over it, except they were posting DNF's. My wife and I decided to take a stab at it. GZ had every possible and imaginable place to hide something so small. Bushes, trees, a large sign, a 4 x 6 metal grate that covers a concrete storm water collection box, ground cover, light fixtures, sprinkler heads etc...

 

We were almost ready to call off the search when I caught a glimpse of something on and under the metal grate. I think that I must have gotten a better sun angle to see what I saw. I moved closer and got down on my hands and knees and what I found was a very small fishing swivel that had been painted black laying along the side of the metal grate. Attached to the swivel was a small black line that ran down the inside corner of the collection box. The surface of the water in the collection box was about 4' below the surface of the grate. I pulled on the line, but it was somewhat heavy. I continued to pull the line and out of the water popped a bunch of plant life. I continued to pull the mass toward the grate. When the mass was at the bottom of the grate I put my fingers through one of the openings in the grate and pulled the mass through. What I found was, a bunch of fake plastic leaves and vines with a bison tube attached to the underside of it. The bison tube had a couple of ounces fishing weights attached to it. The cache owner made the length of the line just long enough to rest on the bottom of the collection box. If there wasn't any water to cover the cache the artificial plant material would work as camouflage.

 

It was pure luck that we found it but we did and got FTF bragging rights to boot.

Edited August 28, 2010 by randco

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Last weekend my family and a friend of my son and his father went to a minor league baseball game. When we got to the stadium I thought of going over to find a micro that was just outside the stadium that I had not search for on prior visits to the ballpark but decided to head inside as it was raining a bit. As we went in we were each given a ticket for a drawing for one of 8 19" flat screen tv or the 26" grand prize flat screen. My wife had the winning number for the grand prize. Had I gone searching for the cache we would have entered the stadium a few minutes later and wouldn't have won the TV.

[+Coldgears]

Apparently threads with a positive theme are not ment to be : (

[+GeoGeeBee]

Apparently threads with a positive theme are not ment to be : (

 

Now, why would you say that? You've had some very positive responses to this thread, and none of them even called you out for taking swag without trading. I'd call that a success!

[knowschad]

Apparently threads with a positive theme are not ment to be : (

You must be one of those "Internet warriors" that flame up everything anybody says, hmm?

 

 

[+RokMartian]

I've never really fully been bitten by the bug until just recently - I think part of it was a little frustration on my part in not finding some of the really "easy" ones. I started thinking that maybe this sport was not for me.

 

I started geocaching again a couple of months ago and I thought I was running into the same rut. I decided I would try a particularly difficult micro (4 stars) but told myself not to expect to find it. Sure enough I couldn't figure it out.

 

About a week later, I went out early on a saturday morning and had an incredible amount of success finding every one I went for. On my way home, feeling more self-confident, I thought I would stop by and try that difficult micro that eluded me last week. Yep, the gpsr was right on top of it and I found it.

 

Ending the day with that find gave me a ton of encouragement to keep going and I have been enjoying every minute since.

 

Thanks!

[+lachupa]

I'm not really a FTF nut but one day when I was on the train I cheched my email and happened to notice that a new cache had listed a couple of blocks from work. I'm not sure why I had my GPSr with me, but it was in my bag. Around lunchtime I got a coworker to go with me to see if we could find it.

 

The coordinates were way off. I think there was some bounce from the big shinny buildings but we had the listing printed out and were looking at it trying to figure out where it was and a guy walked right up between us and said "so I think these coordinates are hosed".

 

It was just so out of the blue but looking back on it, it was pretty obvious what we were doing standing there in the middle of the sidewalk GPSr in hand looking at a print-out.

 

So we met a fellow geocacher. I saw a log later where he did that to someone else so I think he just enjoys hanging out by new caches and busting people.

[+roziecakes]

YAY! A positive thread, I love it!

 

Our luckiest moment was searching for a cache in Denver. We were out there almost an hour scouring the place. It was hot, and we had walked a long way to get there, and didn't want to leave empty handed. I got frustrated. As we were about to leave, I kicked over a piece of wood in frustration. Lo and behold, inside that piece of wood was the cache!!!

[+thecaswellfamily]

This was a first for me, but I feel pretty lucky now that all is said and done... if a bit embarassed as well. Last weekend while out geocaching the kids needed to go... YOU know... and I decided I'd better go too (after all, it is slow going with them in tow and who knew when we'd get back to a facility). I always keep TP and garbage bags in my pack for just such an occasion. Got all the way back home with two kids who were WAY passed their limit, and realised we didn't have the camera (I keep it in my back pocket). That's right... I lost my camera while peeing in the woods! I actually debated whether it would be worth going back for or not (the kids were REALLY acting up) but we did and sure enough, there it was (high and dry, I might add).

[+chasclifton]

However, by far, my 4 y.o. loves the game more than the rest of us. Imagine if you will, every parking lot light post or structure that has one of those pole skirts, he is attempting to lift each and every one. All the while saying, "I'm looking for treasure!"

 

Can I borrow him? He would be great "camouflage."

[SlayerOfBunnies]

I guess the luckiest moment in my currently short GC career was the enjoyment I got at a great location the other day. The cache was easy to find and there were swarms of gnats along the way but the weather was absolutely beautiful and the path led me to a point of land jutting way out into a beautiful lake.

 

Sat there for a while (45 minutes or so) watching the boats, reading my Bible, and enjoying the heck out of the evening. It was really very peaceful and nice.

 

One of the coolest things to me about this one is that I hunt in this area all the time. My son and I know it very well and have spent countless happy hours there but as this particular portion of the park is no-hunting it is extremely unlikely that I would ever have visited this spot had it not been for a cache hidden there. Exploring is tons of fun but I typically need a reason to explore an area - geocaching gives me good reasons.

[+rafermadness]

My luckiest moment was finding a micro. The cache was published and our local FTF hounds were all over it, except they were posting DNF's. My wife and I decided to take a stab at it. GZ had every possible and imaginable place to hide something so small. Bushes, trees, a large sign, a 4 x 6 metal grate that covers a concrete storm water collection box, ground cover, light fixtures, sprinkler heads etc...

 

We were almost ready to call off the search when I caught a glimpse of something on and under the metal grate. I think that I must have gotten a better sun angle to see what I saw. I moved closer and got down on my hands and knees and what I found was a very small fishing swivel that had been painted black laying along the side of the metal grate. Attached to the swivel was a small black line that ran down the inside corner of the collection box. The surface of the water in the collection box was about 4' below the surface of the grate. I pulled on the line, but it was somewhat heavy. I continued to pull the line and out of the water popped a bunch of plant life. I continued to pull the mass toward the grate. When the mass was at the bottom of the grate I put my fingers through one of the openings in the grate and pulled the mass through. What I found was, a bunch of fake plastic leaves and vines with a bison tube attached to the underside of it. The bison tube had a couple of ounces fishing weights attached to it. The cache owner made the length of the line just long enough to rest on the bottom of the collection box. If there wasn't any water to cover the cache the artificial plant material would work as camouflage.

 

It was pure luck that we found it but we did and got FTF bragging rights to boot.

 

Hmmmmmmm.....going to have to make one of those. I've found the dangling from fish line ones, but never with fake leaves attached.

[+power69]

I found a loaded 22 in a ammocan hide and i didn't shoot my eye out.

[+t4e]

while searching in the woods for a newly published cache, which actually turned out not to be there anyway, we found a bottle of unopened booze in one of the logs

[+dasy2k1]

I found a loaded 22 in a ammocan hide and i didn't shoot my eye out.

 

Yeowch, WTF was that doing in there?

 

i know its an ammocan but still

[+edscott]

Going back a few years, but by far my luckiest find was at the end of 1600 meters of wooded bushwhack in knee deep snow on a rocky ridge to a cache on a slope covered with loose rocks. (yes, it was GPS-less) There was too much snow to see the trails so I followed the ridge with a topo map and handheld compass and counted my paces. The first place I stopped didn't look right so I assumed that I'd miscounted by a hundred meters and moved on. There the map made more sense and my ski pole soon produced a hollow sounding clunk when I poked a rock beneath the snow. I walked by the spot again this summer and couldn't believe that I had found it under those conditions.

[CacheCoeur]

Our luckiest moment? My husband once found a 50 dollar bill nearby a cache hidden nearby a waterfall. We had a nice free dinner after a long day of geocaching!

[yspelipe]

One time I was looking for a cache listed as a reglular size container for over 2 hours. I saw nothing unusual at the GZ and when I was about to leave I took my anger out on a stump. Once I kicked it over, There was the cache... right inside the stump. I don't know why I didn't find the massive cut up tree stump as unusual for being in the middle of the woods. I guess this really wasn't luck sense it took over 2 hours to find... Whatever...

[+mesillywoohoo]

My luckiest find was my 17th (I think it was) I'm still new to geocaching but thanks to the forum I'm expecting the unexpected and I found this by chance. I noticed all the other things in the curbs were even with the curb except THIS one

 

 

Sure enough

 

 

SMALLEST one I've found so far

Edited September 4, 2010 by mesillywoohoo

[+mesillywoohoo]

double post

Edited September 4, 2010 by mesillywoohoo