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Geocaching coincidences


Ma & Pa

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I am certain we have all had unexpected encounters with cachers while out caching or uncovered strange coincidences about cachers or caches while on the web or at events. Do any really stand out for you?

 

We have often bumped into cachers on our many trips. For example when we were on a trip to UK and we could not find a cache in Hyde Park. A gentleman sitting on a bench held up a film canister and asked if we wanted to sign next.

 

Our strangest coincidence was likely sometime around 2005. We were on the way back from a 2 day caching trip to Nova Scotia. I got off the main highway to pick up a cache and then continued on the secondary road. As we drove by a wooded park I thought it would be a beautiful place to put a puzzle cache I had been working on. I parked in the picnic area, took a regular size cache with me and went to explore a couple of the short trails. I tried a few spots but wasnt happy with them. After about 10 minutes I noticed a 3 foot stump a short distance off the trail. Upon closer examination, I noticed that the stump was a birch and had essentially turned into sawdust and was held together by the bark. I was getting desperate, so I decided to see if I could push my cache down into the sawdust. I must have pushed too hard, because the entire stump collapsed and I found my feet buried in the sawdust. In that pile of sawdust was another cache. I found a place for that cache and went back to my truck to tell MA that I couldn't hide a cache in this park

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We once hid a cache in a tree intending to hide a puzzle cache, but not having thought of a puzzle at that point. A few days went by and we got a notication of some new caches, and then we made a shocking discovery to our horror...

 

It turns out another cacher had hidden a cache in the same tree, on the same day. They beat us to the punch as we hadn't got as far as writing out a listing at that point.

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I hope you notified the cache owner that you moved his cache after the stump crumbled.

 

I was doing a great multi this week. It was a walk along the water, often on foot bridges over the water. There are many walkways out over the water to watch the wildlife and the passing boats.

As we were caching a boat passed called "seeker." :D

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I spent a half hour one time find a perfect hiding spot in a green belt area that is popular with geoacachers. I found the one spot that was slightly more than .1 miles from the sorrounding caches. I hid my ammo can at the base of the tree and as I stood up I realized there was a large bison hanging from the tree branch directly in front of me. It was final stage of a multi that I hadn't done yet.

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A few years ago I went out one evening for a night cache and could hear a group of cachers ahead of us. We caught up to them at the final and had chat with a team of cachers from Maryland that were up visiting the area (they have family in the area). A few days later we were driving down to the outer banks for a vacation and stopped at a rest stop to grab a Maryland cache (about 300 miles from home). When I looked at the log book I saw that it was owned by the cachers I had met a couple of nights previous. Then I noticed that it was signed about a week earlier by a couple of cachers that live in my area that I had met a couple of weeks earlier at a cache on their front porch. When I got to the Outer Banks I found several other caches with their handles in the log sheets. They were staying in the same area the week before I went.

 

About a year later, on the way back from Maine, I found a cache in Vermont (about 200 miles from home) that had a signature item (a carabiner with the cachers name on it) from a cacher that lives about a mile from me.

 

I don't know if you'd call them coincidences but I find it kind of cool to find a cache far away from home and seeing someones name that I recognize in the log book.

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A few years ago I went out one evening for a night cache and could hear a group of cachers ahead of us. We caught up to them at the final and had chat with a team of cachers from Maryland that were up visiting the area (they have family in the area). A few days later we were driving down to the outer banks for a vacation and stopped at a rest stop to grab a Maryland cache (about 300 miles from home). When I looked at the log book I saw that it was owned by the cachers I had met a couple of nights previous. Then I noticed that it was signed about a week earlier by a couple of cachers that live in my area that I had met a couple of weeks earlier at a cache on their front porch. When I got to the Outer Banks I found several other caches with their handles in the log sheets. They were staying in the same area the week before I went.

 

About a year later, on the way back from Maine, I found a cache in Vermont (about 200 miles from home) that had a signature item (a carabiner with the cachers name on it) from a cacher that lives about a mile from me.

 

I don't know if you'd call them coincidences but I find it kind of cool to find a cache far away from home and seeing someones name that I recognize in the log book.

That's similar to me.

There is a great hider who lives 3km from me.

While on transit at an Airport in Singapore I found one of his signature plates, we had only picked up another one just before leaving.

I also found a cache accidently that wasn't listed while on a walking tour...

Edited by akkatracker
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I hope you notified the cache owner that you moved his cache after the stump crumbled.

 

I was doing a great multi this week. It was a walk along the water, often on foot bridges over the water. There are many walkways out over the water to watch the wildlife and the passing boats.

As we were caching a boat passed called "seeker." :D

YEp wrote a long log.

 

Another coincidence.

 

A cacher from Montreal (800 miles from here) was logging our caches. She was visiting family and brought them caching. It turns out the relatives were people I play poker with, every two weeks. I later found out that MA and I had met her parents on a cruise a few years before and had spent the entire cruise with them.

 

Another one

 

A few years ago we did a multi that involved getting numbers from Acadian monuments and calculating the coordinates of the cache. The map showed the location to be on a local trail which reassured us that we had the correct location. When we got to GZ, we could not find the cache so we widened the search and found the cache 25 meterss away. When we opened the cache, we found our signature in the log book. We realized that it was a cache that we had found a few years before. We recalculated the multi and determined that the multi cache was a couple of miles away.

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This incident falls in the unexpected encounters category, at GC23FWT Just Add Ice:

 

My Log:

 

Very simple to get within 70m of the cache then it went downhill from there. It turns out that my improvised hip waders (garbage bags) very quickly leaked. I was more than halfway out so I wasn't going to turn back at this point; I've had soakers before and the water wasn't too too cold.

 

Getting overconfident within 20m of GZ led to a Stand-By-Me-like plunge up to my waist into an invisible deep spot. This provoked an exclamed "son of a B****!!" from me. My outburst flushed out something that was at GZ but it wasn't a raccoon -- it was a tiggrrr! What are the odds of running into another cacher at a mostly-winter-visited cache, in a rainstorm, at dusk?

 

Luckily she had the cache in hand so I didn't have to make the find (or risk the raccoon factor). She passed me the log which I signed, and then led me out a less-deep path (also using improvised hip waders).

 

Thanks!

 

Their Log:

 

....so, today was the day for my revenge.... I came back prepared this time with my Polish hip waders and made the trek across once again. Funny how a even a touch of daylight makes the world a happy place. Wasn't as bad as I had imagined the other night and I managed to find a route that didn't go past my thighs. Once at GZ I took a few minutes to enjoy the view and snap a few pics, then got back to the reason why I was in the middle of a swamp in a light rain lol. Made the find within a couple minutes and signed myself in.

 

As I was about to replace the log, I started hearing a voice behind me. ????. I peered around the tree and saw another person! What are the odds?!?! It had to be a fellow cacher! I waited a few moments, and after hearing a big splash and a loud string of semi profanity, I decided that was probably the best time to announce my presence. I popped out and said hello!...which almost sent the poor guy right back in! After composing himself, frinklabs made it to the tree and we shook hands. Very nice to meet you! I offered him the log, he signed and I replaced the cache exactly as I found it. We made our way back to the cars and had a nice geochat before heading off.

 

Thanks for this awesome adventure! I had a blast testing my so called 'metal' lol. Favorite for me! Absolutely beautiful spot and I'm glad I came back to finish this when I did. TFTC! :D

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A few years ago I went out one evening for a night cache and could hear a group of cachers ahead of us. We caught up to them at the final and had chat with a team of cachers from Maryland that were up visiting the area (they have family in the area). A few days later we were driving down to the outer banks for a vacation and stopped at a rest stop to grab a Maryland cache (about 300 miles from home). When I looked at the log book I saw that it was owned by the cachers I had met a couple of nights previous. Then I noticed that it was signed about a week earlier by a couple of cachers that live in my area that I had met a couple of weeks earlier at a cache on their front porch. When I got to the Outer Banks I found several other caches with their handles in the log sheets. They were staying in the same area the week before I went.

 

About a year later, on the way back from Maine, I found a cache in Vermont (about 200 miles from home) that had a signature item (a carabiner with the cachers name on it) from a cacher that lives about a mile from me.

 

I don't know if you'd call them coincidences but I find it kind of cool to find a cache far away from home and seeing someones name that I recognize in the log book.

That's similar to me.

There is a great hider who lives 3km from me.

While on transit at an Airport in Singapore I found one of his signature plates, we had only picked up another one just before leaving.

 

Here's another coincidence. Next Sunday morning I'll be in transit at Changi Airport in Singapore and will try to grab that cache at the Butterfly garden in terminal 3. I know of two other regular forum members that have found it, but it's been replaced a few times so I don't know if I'll see any signatures in the log that I'll recognize. I'll be staying in Singapore an extra night on the way home (from Kuching, Malaysia) and hope to find a few other caches in the area.

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When I first started caching I had found a cache and had walked over to a bench to sign the log. Well right there on the bench was an eraser from the art supply store where I work. i could tell because we hand write our prices on items, and it sure was my handwriting! I thought that was pretty cool.

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A couple of years ago a group of us went to visit "The Spot" in New York. It was such a great trip, I left an unactivated Little Rhody Horseshoe Crab geocoin for the next set of finders. I monitored the logs and saw that a group from Hawaii grabbed the coin...very cool.

 

A few months later I was out in Hawaii on business, and was able to get some caching in. I went out with some of the locals, hiking up a very scenic trail. We got close to the target cache, and there was a group of cachers already there. We said hello and started logging the cache. I said I had an unactivated Little Rhody coin I was going to leave in the cache, and they were welcome to it. They said they already had one! !! I asked where they got it (thinking they got it as a prize at a local event since I send some coins out to my friends there), but they said they got it in a cache in New York..left by "some guy named big bad wolf or something"!

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A couple of years ago a group of us went to visit "The Spot" in New York. It was such a great trip, I left an unactivated Little Rhody Horseshoe Crab geocoin for the next set of finders. I monitored the logs and saw that a group from Hawaii grabbed the coin...very cool.

 

A few months later I was out in Hawaii on business, and was able to get some caching in. I went out with some of the locals, hiking up a very scenic trail. We got close to the target cache, and there was a group of cachers already there. We said hello and started logging the cache. I said I had an unactivated Little Rhody coin I was going to leave in the cache, and they were welcome to it. They said they already had one! !! I asked where they got it (thinking they got it as a prize at a local event since I send some coins out to my friends there), but they said they got it in a cache in New York..left by "some guy named big bad wolf or something"!

 

WOW!! What are the odds.

 

I have another one but not even close to that. In 2010 we were on our way to our daughters place in Ottawa. It took us three weeks to get there because of all the caches on the way. We brought many TB's with us and dropped many en route and picked up many. One of the TB's happened to belong to Ottawa cachers Petendot who coincidentally would be going to a breakfast event on the weekend we arrived. We showed up at the event, introduced ourselves, and presented them with their TB. We then spent the rest of the day caching with them.

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Last year at the West Bend Cache Ba$h I was in an area doing a few caches put out for the bash. I had decided to skip the puzzle cache because I wanted finds and didn't want to spend time on the puzzle. As a got nearly to the cache I was searching for a group came out of the woods and asked if I was searching for the planets puzzle cache nearby. I said I was going to do it and they said we are on the way to the final if I wanted to tag along. I happily said sure! I then went the short way to the regular cache and left the park I was searching in...

 

Also the first puzzle cache I found I had guys show up out of nowhere and asked what we were looking for. This was maybe my second or third trip out caching and one of the first in the woods. They pulled it out of its hiding spot and they went on there way out of the area...very odd! B)

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Yes - This one

 

We were doing a multi stage puzzle cache based on a very clever bit of electronics built by the cache owner. It involved taking this special box to several places, which were spread over a large area (we drove around 120 miles that day) - and a walk at each stage.

 

Now, we got to one of the stages and this magic box stopped working! We could see that a wire had come disconnected inside. But by design the box was locked with a combination padlock - we could not open it. We thought we would have to abort our mission.

 

Then suddenly, someone walks up to us and says "hello geocachers". We wonder how he knows that (we were not near an actual geocache location). He answered that he was the one who built the "magic box" we were holding! And to make a long story short, with his help we got the box open, repaired the electronics, and continued along our way. The chances of that owner turning up at just when we needed him in that particular location were very slim.

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The day before this question was posted, for my lunch break, on a lark I drove 20 miles from home for some caches. One of the logs I signed had last been signed by my sister and brother-in-law who live 40 miles away. They cache almost as much as I do, but I have no idea what they were doing there.

 

Earlier this year, I went on a Venooney follow up activity after the Venona trials. I walked up to the gathering point and met the 2 other cachers already waiting. We knew each other through logs and such, but had never met in person. We chatted while we waited, and soon discovered that our college age kids had been best friends since middle school. Their son had been in my house many times.

 

My favorite coincidences are the ones I create myself. One of the local master puzzlers published a tough puzzle that I managed to solve right away. For various reasons, I wasn't going to try for FTF until I realized that the CO had just the day before FTFed my first puzzle cache. That made me determined, so when the weather was better than expected the next day, I made the long hike out to FTF his puzzle. What a coincidence!

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I had just really gotten into geocaching and was totally hooked, and really wanted a FTF. I decided to go after Jack London Nano, since it had been hidden in February of 2011 and as of July 2011 still no one had gone after it - I had been watching it for awhile. I picked the weekend I wanted to go, and thought I'd do the hike that Saturday. Well, it turned out that my better half had some other things he wanted to do that day so I figured, sure, no problem, I'll just go do it on Sunday instead - one day isn't going to make a difference.

 

So, I set out for the hike that Sunday, mid-morning. It was HOT. The hike to the cache was 100% uphill, about 3 miles to get there. I got stung by a wasp along the way. But I pressed on, intent on getting that FTF. Finally made it to the overlook and the bench, grabbed the cache and gratefully sat down to sign the log. Opened up the log and... 2 people had signed it before me. THAT MORNING. I couldn't believe it. 5.5 months of not being found - no one even going to look for it - and 3 of us go after it on the same day! What are the odds? :rolleyes:

Edited by redwoodkestrel
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Our son is in The san Jose area in California. We sometimes call and ask if he would like company. He asks if we want to visit or are we going to geocache. Of course we have to be honest.

 

So while he is at work (At Apple says dad proudly), we go caching in the hills.

 

One day we spent 6 hours hiking the trails in Rancho San Antonio Park picking up caches. In the middle of the afternoon we met a couple who were watching lizards in the brush. As we walked by, they asked if we knew anything about lizards. We said we werent from the area and couldnt help. They said that they were visiting and asked where we were from. They were surprised when we said New Brunswick and told us they were from Nova Scotia and were also visiting their son. They said they lived in Elmsdale. We said we knew it well as every Spring we go to the Geocaching Spring Kickoff which takes place in Curly's Pub. The woman said that her sister worked there.

 

Just another coincidence.

 

*A few years ago we were doing the Easy street caches in Florida. It was a rural road with film canisters placed on the ground next to fence posts near the road. After a while we found it easier for me to drive and MA to find the cache. At one point, when Ma was out of the car, a car heading in the other direction made a U-Turn and parked right behind me. I immediately locked the car doors. It turns out it was a cacher named doughball. he took us to find an interesting local cache. Here is photo of him and Ma. PS Dont tell MA that I locked the door.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=686fdf9b-a042-4b1e-9caf-95684ffb2bf8&IID=e7f0c9a5-8e9e-4fd5-99db-885cd08b77e1

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Stuck at work I saw a new cache pop up in my area of the east bay. I put it on my watchlist and watched DNF logs popping up. They were saying the area didn't match. So on the computer I looked up the area and the description on the cache page. The cache page described a dive bar. I looked up the place on line and noticed it was .4 away from GZ. I posted a NM saying the coords were off. So I went over after work but couldn't find it in the dark. So the next day I went back to try again with the hint in mind. Still nothing so I sat on a step talking to a friend on the phone when a young girl showed up with an iphone and was standing there in front of an object. I figured it was the CO. So I posted a note on the cache saying "hi" to see if she would notice me. Nothing. So I said "hi" and she turned and gave me a look, but didn't say anything. After awhile she got in her car and I got a notification she had updated the coords. After she drove away I walked over and found the cache.

Edited by jellis
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A couple of years ago a group of us went to visit "The Spot" in New York. It was such a great trip, I left an unactivated Little Rhody Horseshoe Crab geocoin for the next set of finders. I monitored the logs and saw that a group from Hawaii grabbed the coin...very cool.

 

A few months later I was out in Hawaii on business, and was able to get some caching in. I went out with some of the locals, hiking up a very scenic trail. We got close to the target cache, and there was a group of cachers already there. We said hello and started logging the cache. I said I had an unactivated Little Rhody coin I was going to leave in the cache, and they were welcome to it. They said they already had one! !! I asked where they got it (thinking they got it as a prize at a local event since I send some coins out to my friends there), but they said they got it in a cache in New York..left by "some guy named big bad wolf or something"!

 

Small world. :shocked:

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Mine from tonight:

 

So I went out shopping tonight and remembered there was a new cache nearby so I took the GPS and flashlight. On my way to GZ, I realized I did not have the coords. Doh! However, I figured I'd go take a look anyway. I remembered something about it being close to where the previous one was hidden, so I looked there first. No luck, so I continued wandering around looking for likely hidey holes. While I was looking, I thought, well, it sure would be nice to have a smartphone so I could look the coordinates. Not long after that, I looked down at my feet and there was...wait for it...a smartphone!?!? Yes, it was indeed a smartphone so the first thing I did was turn it on and hope to look up the coords. Only problem was the batteries were drained so it shut off soon after I picked it up. Doh! Figured I should go home and show Mr Incredibles, but first take a few more minutes to look for the cache. Returned to the first place I had looked and dug a bit deeper. Sure enough, found it nicely tucked away. No rock on top, but probably a good thing as would damage your container. Replaced with sticks and leaves.

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I posted this one a while back. Our first bike-caching trip. I was having difficulty holding the device and yelled out to the Mr. that I wish I had a lanyard so I could put the device around my neck. (This was before we got the bicycle clips for our Garmins.) The very next cache was a large peanut butter jar with a lanyard in it, just waiting for me.

Last December, we visited our daughter in Hawaii. We are from California. At one cache spot, we found another cacher who just happened to live 20 miles from us in California. He was the only cacher we happened upon, too.

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I posted this awhile back in another thread, but it fits this one as well:

 

We and our caching partners were hiking and caching in the desert Southwest of Palm Springs, CA. We found a travel bug (our first) in a remote cache; its goal was to travel out West and then return to Nashville, TN. Our caching partners were going there in two weeks, so we picked up the bug. We would transfer it to our friends at a future cache.

 

The bug was not logged into that cache so I "grabbed" it and emailed the owner that it was found and would be back in Nashville shortly. A day later I got a "thanks" from the owner.

 

A few hours later, another email asked if I was in the Air Force, stationed in Illinois in the late 60's. I was, and it turns out we knew each well during that time 38 years ago.

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Their Log:

 

....so, today was the day for my revenge.... I came back prepared this time with my Polish hip waders and made the trek across once again. Funny how a even a touch of daylight makes the world a happy place. Wasn't as bad as I had imagined the other night and I managed to find a route that didn't go past my thighs. Once at GZ I took a few minutes to enjoy the view and snap a few pics, then got back to the reason why I was in the middle of a swamp in a light rain lol. Made the find within a couple minutes and signed myself in.

 

LOL, these logs remind me of caches that I did in the bogs and swamps in Virgina. While I didn't come across any other geocachers I did have to MacGyvering of my own to keep from getting too wet/muddy.

 

I am assuming that Polish is a brand name of hip waders and that it isn't being used a derogatory or racist way.

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Their Log:

 

....so, today was the day for my revenge.... I came back prepared this time with my Polish hip waders and made the trek across once again. Funny how a even a touch of daylight makes the world a happy place. Wasn't as bad as I had imagined the other night and I managed to find a route that didn't go past my thighs. Once at GZ I took a few minutes to enjoy the view and snap a few pics, then got back to the reason why I was in the middle of a swamp in a light rain lol. Made the find within a couple minutes and signed myself in.

 

LOL, these logs remind me of caches that I did in the bogs and swamps in Virgina. While I didn't come across any other geocachers I did have to MacGyvering of my own to keep from getting too wet/muddy.

 

I am assuming that Polish is a brand name of hip waders and that it isn't being used a derogatory or racist way.

 

I suspect they're actually Polish, based on the surname in the email address they used when contacting me later. They were also in Poland recently.

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I posted this one a while back. Our first bike-caching trip. I was having difficulty holding the device and yelled out to the Mr. that I wish I had a lanyard so I could put the device around my neck. (This was before we got the bicycle clips for our Garmins.) The very next cache was a large peanut butter jar with a lanyard in it, just waiting for me.

Last December, we visited our daughter in Hawaii. We are from California. At one cache spot, we found another cacher who just happened to live 20 miles from us in California. He was the only cacher we happened upon, too.

 

One of my favorite pieces of swag was a lanyard from Italian National Forest Service that I picked up at a cache in Rome. It was still attached to my old GPS that was stolen.

 

A few years ago I was talking to my neighbor as he was cleaning up a new bicycle that he bought at a garage sale. It was an really old Schwinn that was actually in really good condition. It even had a chrome basket in front. When he was finishing up he said, "now all I need is a bike bell.". I went out later that afternoon to grab a couple of caches in a State forest nearby, and one that was about a mile hike up a steep trail. When I finally opened up the ammo can and went through the swag, what did I find but a brand new bike bell. I had to trade several items for it but I *had* to take it.

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Back in August of '12 I was in the eastern most town of the contiuguous united states and wanted desperately to get the eastern most cache in the contiguous united states as well. The problem is that gps and phone signal were unusable as roaming charges from Canada would have cost a fortune (yes it starts roam in canada when you're not in Canada). So my girlfriend and I tried to look it up before crossing the roaming line, but there wasn't that much info that we could utilize.

A buddy of mine found it the year prior, so we asked him for some helpful hints as we tried not to use gps for this cache. He did not remember much at all except two very vague hints.

 

When we arrived at the park it is located at, we had almost nothing to go on with the exception of two vague hints. And the park is pretty large, especially when you're looking for a cache that could be anywhere. Plus it was raining out, drowning our spirits already even before shoving off to find this seemingly impossible cache to find.

 

So we head off, searching high and low for anything. Anything and everywhere. After awhile, we were getting more and more disheartened as the cache was not eluding us wherever we went. Just as our time was closing to an end, we were getting ready to turn around when we decided to take a look at one more pathway in the park. As we turned the corner, we noticed a giant blue tupperware container and excitement overcame both of us as we realized we had just stumbled upon the eastern most geocache without the use of gps and the vaguest of hints!

Geocaching at its finest :)

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You don't need roaming, since GPS isn't provided by the phone signal. Your phone can pick up a GPS signal wherever you are without further costs, since it's entirely passive.

 

Yep, with the official app you can Save PQs (with maps) prior to entering a data roaming area (or using a wifi connection) then navigate to the cache as you'd normally do. I'm in Malaysia right now and have my iPhone to never use Data Roaming when traveling. While caching yesterday I was getting a bit of signal bounce with my handheld GPS while searching for one 3 star difficulty cache. I tried my iPhone and although it seemed a bit less accurate than my handheld it was certainly close enough to find the cache if I had only used the phone. Using the app I did have access to to the complete description, hints, recent logs. etc.

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yes it starts roam in canada when you're not in Canada

 

Those darn radio waves. They have no respect for international boundaries.

Some, if not all phones, have a way to "turn off" roaming. Check with your cell carrier next time to see if they are willing to add international roaming to your plan for just a month. It will cost extra but it will far less than the normal roaming charge.

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