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Ever leave your GPS at a cache?


JohnX

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I have twice, but both times it was realized within a few minutes of doing it, and both in remote areas that no one else was going to be any time soon.

 

My Dad, on the other had, left his in a very crowded place sitting next to a cache location that sent him running back to the cache site, and me running back to the car to try to get there faster that way. Luckily it was still there.

 

We both wear tethers around our wrists now. Much safer for guys like us.

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I did kind of the opposite.

 

I went to an easy peasy cache that didn't need the machine, 30 minutes later I returned to the vehicle and wondered what on earth could be on the roof? Yup, I left the machine there, on the roof, at a shopping mall and it was still there. Didn't find the cache either :D

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Nope.

 

However, I fell asleep while driving on I-25 east of Casper, WY & hit a guard rail head on and rolled 4 times down a 25 foot embankment. The next day when I recovered all my belongings from my totaled vehicle I found my GPS under the dash. I still use it - my Garmin Legend is tough!!

 

Another note, we all survived b/c we wore our seatbelts!

Edited by Krusers
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I have not left my GPS, but I did leave a $350 pair of sunglasses on a day of geocaching. The problem is I didn't know exactly which cache is was except that it was later in the day when I still needed them out side the woods, but not in the woods. I learned my lesson.

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I have not left my GPS, but I did leave a $350 pair of sunglasses on a day of geocaching. The problem is I didn't know exactly which cache is was except that it was later in the day when I still needed them out side the woods, but not in the woods. I learned my lesson.
That's why I only spend $10 on a pair of sunglasses. My current sunglasses were $5. And polarized!

 

I've left my hiking pole behind & realized it halfway out numerous times. The $10 sunglasses got lost once, but another cacher found them & left them for me at another cache. Of course, there was the time I was out caching with a friend, who lost his car keys. . .

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I recently left my gpsr behind a building after finding a cache in a neighboring city. I was almost home when I reached over to turn it off and realized I didn't have it. I had only about 30 minutes to get home and change and get to work so I had no time to go back and get it. I called a cacher I knew that lived close to where I left it and they were out of town so they called their daughter who was able to go pick it up within 15 minutes of me realizing it was missing. Then a short while later I was telling another cacher who lived right around the corner from me about it and she was passing through that area on the way to get some FTFs that had just published. She stopped and brought it back to me. Pretty cool to have it back within a few hours like that. There are some really great cachers out there.

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Early on I left my GPSr sitting on a guardrail next to a cache in Portland OR. It was right across the street from the train station and I didn't realize it until just as the train was pulling out of the station. The conductor was able to call the ticketing office and someone walked over and got it for me, and a friend picked it up and mailed it to me.

 

Another trip, I left it sitting on the ground near one of the oldest caches (first 100). I realized it when I got back to the car. The funny thing was when we looked at the picture of us with the cache, you can see my GPSr sitting on the ground in the background.

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I have not left mine but I did find one.

We were caching in Hurricane Utah and on the first cache of the day we found a cache next to an elecrtical box and we opened it up and put the log on top of the box to sign and there was a Oregon 550 lying there. We thought what a great FTF prize. However it was not to be as we started it up and luckily the owners name was in it with a phone number. We called and left a message and about noon we heard from the happiest high school boy. He knew that he had lost it but did not know where. We made arrangements to meet him after school and return it. I thought he was going to break my wifes arm with all the shaking hands. It had been there for two days.

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Over the year's I've had to hike back at least 3 times to get my GPS. Twice, it was less than 500 feet, once it was about a mile. That gets your attention.

 

Also, I have found 2 gps units at cache sites and 2 PDA's. Got them all returned to the rightful owners. Very wise to put some ID info on your unit!!

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Mine is attached to me with a tether. It's long and usually clipped to a belt loop with a caribiner. It can also go around my neck but not when I'm getting a cache in a tree. I'm afraid I'll fall and hang myself. I have stood up from caches and left the GPSr there but it usually hits me in the leg.

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gps? couple of times.

sunglasses? hiking pole? sure.

But this was the best: I had the cache open and stuff out on the ground when my wife called on my cell phone. After talking with her for a few minutes, I put everything back in the cache and walked back to the car. As I got in, I realized my cell phone was missing. Walked back toward the cache, looking carefully at the ground the entire way. Got all the way back to the cache and hadn't found it. My heart was sinking. As a last resort I pulled the cache out and took off the top... yep, right there on top of the swag was my cell phone!

(Please don't tell my wife. She's already threatening to put me in a home :P )

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I left mine on top of the Jeep and drove off, never to be seen again. I now have mine on a tether also. A couple weeks later, I left my iPhone on the Jeep. Needless to say, I set nothing on top of the Jeep now. :P

 

I found a pair of prescription sunglasses at a cache once, I picked them up and messaged the last few people to find the cache. Found the owner and we met at the 10 year event and returned them.

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I left my sunglasses a few times. Usually I'm still close enough to the cache site to go back for them but one time I was long gone before I realized that I was missing them.

 

My coworker left his GPS on the roof of his car and noticed it bouncing on the road when he pulled away. It still works! Good ole Garmin 76 CSX!

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Dropped my cell phone at a cache on the side of a hill in Scotland. Despite being outside for a while, it worked just fine when we finally got it back.

 

Almost left my sunglasses at caches before, and it would not have been cheap to replace 'em -- they're not designer, they're prescription.

Edited by hzoi
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We found a GPSr at a cache, about a month after the owner left it there. And there were 2 finds in between their leaving it there and our finding it!

See the owner's log at: log

 

The worst part was that the contact number was an old cell phone number for him. But with the sleuthing work of the local cachers, we were able to ship the GPSr back to him pretty quickly.

 

The cache was and still is one of the hardest caches we have retrieved the logbook for. Not a hard find, just getting to the logbook is a real puzzle!

 

The Secret of the Lock Returns by Chumpo

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The first day I used my 76CSx I left it on a headstone and went to another cemetery about two miles away which was going to be our last cache of the day. I discovered it missing and went back and retrieved it. The thing that got me thinking was if the cemetery I left it in would have been the last cache of the day we were about 110 miles from home, and would I have discovered it missing before we got home.

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Yeah, I left my GPS on the top of my car after a long day hiking/ caching and took off without it. Didn't realize it until I received a call from a parks dept. worker who had found it on the side of the park roadway. Definately a good idea putting your contact info on the opening GPS screen.

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Well of course I never left a GPS at a cache site, but I have left a compass which the next finder mailed to me.. I hadn't missed it as I have several compasses and never know where they all are at any given time. I've also left my favorite walking stick two times and was lucky enough to be able to retrieve it within a couple days each time.

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Never for more than a minute or two. That happened when I first got into geocaching and hadn't developed good practices. Now I always have a clip on my belt for the GPSr, or it goes in my pocket. I don't place the GPSr on the ground while messing with a find either. I also have a clip on my backpack that gets used on occasion. One circumstance where I am at risk is when I use the GPSr waypoint averaging feature to get good coordinates for a cache. I usually hang it on a branch at the hide.

 

I have lost one pair of sunglasses though.

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Almost left the gps behind a few times. One time on a hike I found the cache and signed the log, re-hid the ammo can under some rocks, collected my hiking poles, pack, etc. and realized I didn't have the gps. Turns out I threw the gps in the ammo can with the rest of the contents.

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