Ever accidentally found a puzzle final?

[TheCacheSeeker]

Have you ever accidentally found a puzzle final without solving it?

Someone did that to my brother's cache while that person was looking for a trail to a nearby cache.

[+GrateBear]

Ha, I can't even accidentally find a puzzle solution! I'm terrible at them, and don't know how anyone figures out some of them. Gives me a headache just thinking about them.

[TheCacheSeeker]

Ha, I can't even accidentally find a puzzle solution! I'm terrible at them, and don't know how anyone figures out some of them. Gives me a headache just thinking about them.

I meant puzzle final ( the actual container). Sorry for any confusion caused.

[+The_Incredibles_]

Yep, twice, not strictly be accident, though.

 

1st time, was in an area that was otherwise saturated and there was this spot which I knew HAD to have a cache on it. Poked around in the place I though I would hide one and was surprised to find the cache!

 

2nd time, I was on the beach, and noticed a puzzle cache nearby. Read the very detailed hint and noticed it matched a tree nearby. Poked around and sure enough.

[+Chokecherry]

Never on accident but once or twice due to the puzzle not being right and my own issues solving it I nearly solved the puzzle and just brute forced the final.

[+BaylorGrad]

Actually--yes/kind of--and it was an extremely weird coincidence.

 

I had JUST been looking at this cache page before I left home: GC11KZR. I decided I wasn't up to solving the puzzle at the moment, so I went the to same area to grab some traditionals. While looking for a parking spot, I saw a man looking in an area that I KNEW didn't have a cache. I rolled down my window, asked if he was looking for the final of a puzzle cache, and sure enough, it was that particular cache!

 

But we only found GZ--we never found the cache. I'm pretty sure it's gone, but as you can see, no one logs their DNFs in this city. Either way, it was a weird coincidence.

[+plumbrokeacres]

I found one by accident was in the area, with a caching buddy when he recognized a sign post that was in the cache description of a newly published puzzle. We rooted around for a couple minutes and stumbled upon it.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I've brute forced four or five. So I didn't find them by accident. I worked hard at it! I did notice a CO hiding one. But he got mad and tore out the page with my signature, and changed the puzzle... Oh, well.

[+sword fern]

I have found a final of a multi cache (kinda) by accident. I put up a cache for review and I got a note saying the final to a certain multi cache was too close. I took a peek at that cache page and gallery and saw some similarities to where I hid the cache and where the gallery was pointing to. I went back to retrieve the cache, and I thought I might take a quick look. Lo and behold, there was the bison tube!

[+humboldt flier]

Yepper X 3. but I don't take the find because I didn't solve the puzzle.

 

Despite being given permission by the owners.

 

My own "ethics"

[+Sol seaker]

I found a multi once by accident.

 

I was hiking in a park with a friend who was not quite as rugged as I am.

We were on a trail that was officially closed due to bridge work (but you didn't hear that from me).

 

So I walked ahead of my friend, and in my goretex boots walked through every stream and checked every bridge for safety. And under one of them was a cache.

 

I signed it, got home and looked it up, wondering why it hadn't been in my GPS since we were out caching, and it turned out it was not only a multi but also was disabled. The CO thought the cache had washed out with the bridge. I guess the bridge had been replaced and the rangers put the cache back.

 

He was really excited to know his cache was still fine.

I asked him about logging it since I didn't find all the stages of the multi and he told me to log it.

Something about finding a cache the hard way without coordinates even.

He said a find is a find.

[+Dgwphotos]

I found a multi once by accident.

 

I was hiking in a park with a friend who was not quite as rugged as I am.

We were on a trail that was officially closed due to bridge work (but you didn't hear that from me).

 

So I walked ahead of my friend, and in my goretex boots walked through every stream and checked every bridge for safety. And under one of them was a cache.

 

I signed it, got home and looked it up, wondering why it hadn't been in my GPS since we were out caching, and it turned out it was not only a multi but also was disabled. The CO thought the cache had washed out with the bridge. I guess the bridge had been replaced and the rangers put the cache back.

 

He was really excited to know his cache was still fine.

I asked him about logging it since I didn't find all the stages of the multi and he told me to log it.

Something about finding a cache the hard way without coordinates even.

He said a find is a find.

I know the cache, and the owner. I was part of the CITO that finished the rebuilding of the trail.

[+The_Incredibles_]

Found another one tonight. There was a spot exactly 0.10 miles from one geocache and 0.11 miles from another AND there was a stump right there. Took a peek and sure enough.

Edited August 1, 2011 by The_Incredibles_

[+Avi8torAce]

I recently found the final stage of a multi-cache by accident. I was at a historical marker taking some pictures when I wondered if it was possible for it to be a cache there. Well, there was one, but happened to be the final stage of it. After some searching, I found the original multi-cache that it belonged to.

[+Ejadis]

I found the bonuscache for a series of 20 or some traditionals by accident. We were searching for the final of a multi, and it seemed to be really off. Then I found this box, hidden in a tree.

 

When we've been searching for longer than a few minutes, we always yell "let's take this one until we find the right one!" So I did. Then I realized: This ISN'T the "right" cache...

 

In this moment, I felt pretty dumb.

[+Roman!]

I was doing a trip around a lake and there was an empty 500 meter stretch and a multi that was placed not far off so while we were walking I told my son to keep an eye out and soon enough he found a container. I thought cool, an easy multi but soon found out it was the end of a Wherigo that started 2 miles away. We just put it back without signing the log or logging the find.

[+Vater_Araignee]

Yup. I was bushwhacking to a traditional and a puzzle final went crunch.

Marked the spot, went and bought a replacement container.

The hard part was solving 4 puzzles before I had the correct one so that I could contact the correct CO to let them know they needed to redo the camou.

[+hobgoblinkiteflier]

We were following the GPS to a cache and it took us to a bench at the side of the trail. A likely spot for a cache, but then I looked at the description and realised that it was a puzzle that I had not been able to solve. Just as I was about to say this to the rest of the team, my daughter pulled a container out from the base of a tree, "Is this it?".

[+DanOCan]

I don't know if it counts as an "accidental" find, but...

 

We had a local cacher who had developed a reputation for Archiving his old caches and then relisting them as brand new caches without ever moving/changing the containers.

 

One day I noticed he had published a new Difficulty 5 puzzle in a provincial park near me. I knew he had previously had an easier puzzle in the same area, so I wondered if he had recycled that same container/location for the new more difficult puzzle.

 

Sure enough, a few logs came in and made mention to "a sense of deja vu" or "Signed in under my original signature."

 

I went back into GSAK, pulled out my old corrected coordinates for the original puzzle and used them to find the new puzzle.

[+15Tango]

A few months ago I found the perfect park for a geocache. Looked at the maps and saw no caches within .10 miles, emailed the city manager who emailed the mayor who gave me permission to hide the cache, got my container loaded with swag, head back to the park with my container ready to hide, find the perfect spot to hide my cache, and find a big ol' silver ammo can sitting there. And it just so happened that the park was too small to get my cache hidden anywhere else in it - the farthest I could get from the puzzle final was around 450'.

 

At first I was a little peeved that I'd put all that work into my cache only to find that someone else had bogarted my spot, then decided that life goes on, laughed about the coincidence, and used the TB I found in the puzzle final to find the listing and took advantage of the free smiley.

 

In my log, I explained how I found the final without solving the puzzle, and the CO hasn't deleted it, so I'm still assuming they're okay with my "found" log.

Edited August 1, 2011 by 15Tango

[+Brooklyn51]

We were trying a hide a cache in a park that had only 2 really good hiding spots that were not too far apart. We placed our cache in the best one only to have it rejected as being too close to a puzzle final. We went back to pick up our cache and just on a hunch we looked the other spot over. Sure enough, there was a cache sitting in there. We signed the log and taking note of the other signers, we were able to figure out which puzzle it was, which was way easier than trying to solve the actual puzzle. We explained it all in our log and like 15Tango, the CO let it stand.