Have you ever stumbled upon a cache without trying?

[+tweetiepy]

I don,t mean literally but what I mean is have you ever found a cache by mistake? How would you find out which one it is and log it? could you log it (would it be considered cheating?)

 

I'll never be able to cache in numbers as I do it for fun and for being together so I'd never log "found it" if I didn,t sign the log so would finding a cache by mistake count still? I mean I didn't have to look for it or follow coordinates to find it or solve anything.

[+Panther&Pine]

I haven't but Yellow1961 (my mother) did (Never did figure out what GC code it went to either).

If you find and sign the log you can claim the find, nothing wrong with that.

[+The A-Team]

I don,t mean literally but what I mean is have you ever found a cache by mistake? How would you find out which one it is and log it? could you log it (would it be considered cheating?)

Yes, once, but it was early in my caching career and I didn't even think to log it as a find. It had the name on it, so I was able to easily identify it. It was the final of a multi, and I later completed the earlier stages and then found and logged the final. I constantly check possible cache hiding spots when I'm on trails that don't show a cache, but I have yet to find another. If I did, I would absolutely be logging it as a find.

 

Cheating? Definitely not. How is finding a cache cheating?

[+K13]

My first find was one I stumbled upon while answer a 'nature call'. Read the cache info page inside & checked out the website and joined. That was almost 7 years ago.

[+NeecesandNephews]

Easy enough to do if you have a GPS by creating a waypoint while you are at the location. Just like you do when you are placing a cache. Come home, go to the search page, scroll down to the search criteria of Long. and Lat. , enter your waypoint info and search. Unless its the final for a multi or a puzzle, it should tell you what cache you have found. If you limit your search radius to ..say... two miles, you could probably figure out which puzzle it was, if that's the case.

 

edit to add- this is only for a cache listed on this site. There are other listing sites.

Edited January 9, 2013 by NeecesandNephews

[+niraD]

I once found an archived cache while searching for possible hiding places for a cache of my own. I was able to identify it by deciphering a few of the names and dates on the log sheet, and looking up the caches found by those people on those dates.

 

It turned out that someone had rehidden the cache "better" than it was originally hidden. After a couple DNFs, the CO checked on it, couldn't find it, and assumed that it had been muggled again. So he archived it. But the cache was still there, only inches from its original hiding place.

 

I suppose I could have logged a Find, but I didn't.

[+hzoi]

The standard line on a stash note for a geocache says, "Congratulations! You found it! (Intentionally or otherwise.)" If you find and log a geocache, you get to claim it as a find.

 

During the CITO on the day after Germany's first mega event, our cleanup crew found this puzzle cache. Which was nice, because the museum exhibits upon which the puzzle was based were all in German. Our German is awful, so we never would have found it otherwise. The whole crew logged finds.

 

After logging the final at this multi, I wandered around the ruined castle nearby and saw a hole at the base of a tree covered with rocks. "That looks like the perfect spot for a geocache," sez I. And it was -- the final for this other multi had been hidden there, someone had taken it, it was archived, and then the final was replaced. The owner was able to unarchive the cache after I logged the find.

[+succotash]

We actually did "stumble upon" a cache once. The cache was unlisted - it turns out that the owners had hidden it waiting for someone with geosense or luck to stumble upon it. It took a year for that to happen! The owners published it as "The Succotash Cache". Very exciting! You can read our log entry here.

[+OZ2CPU]

I always look a little bit after caches no matter where I am,

and this way I found a few, by looking at trees or stuff, good hiding places,

and not looking at your GPS all the time, you do find caches now and then,

multies, puzzles and unlisted forgotten ones..

I claimed a FTF once on a forgotten unlisted I found, it got name and email and all that in its logbook too,

and was even nice and dry after many many years, so I contacted the CO

and talked him into releasing it, so I could log it, and so others could find his old old cache,

Be warned about unlisted caches, you can NOT be sure its position will be legal for a realease in the future

since you do not own the legal 161 meter area, as long as the cache is "forgotten"

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

Twice.

 

First time was the conatiner from a long archived cache, about .5 miles from its original location. CO let me log it.

 

The second time I found Stage 10 of a 12 Stage Multi. I was looking for a place to hide a new cache, and saw what I thought was a good spot. When I went to check it out, there was a pill bottle with coordinates. New which cache it had to belong to based on where I found I found (only one multi anywhere close).

 

 

How could you determine which cahe it was? Look at the log book and note the recent finders. Go to their profile and try to match things up.

[+NeverSummer]

Easy enough to do if you have a GPS by creating a waypoint while you are at the location. Just like you do when you are placing a cache. Come home, go to the search page, scroll down to the search criteria of Long. and Lat. , enter your waypoint info and search. Unless its the final for a multi or a puzzle, it should tell you what cache you have found. If you limit your search radius to ..say... two miles, you could probably figure out which puzzle it was, if that's the case.

 

edit to add- this is only for a cache listed on this site. There are other listing sites.

^This.

 

Yes, I have stumbled on a cache. I have also found puzzle caches without solving the puzzle. I also have been out hiking in a new place, look at the base of a stump, and see a stack of sticks where a cache was hidden.

 

You can take a waypoint with your GPS and then search for nearest on the search page at geocaching.com.

[+redwoodkestrel]

It's how I got into geocaching - by finding one while I was out on a hike. I made it up to the ridge and sat down at a bench to take in the view - and saw a tupperware container in a nearby bush! Read the info, signed the log, and checked out the website. Never actually logged that cache online though, and it's long-archived now.

[+NeverSummer]

It's how I got into geocaching - by finding one while I was out on a hike. I made it up to the ridge and sat down at a bench to take in the view - and saw a tupperware container in a nearby bush! Read the info, signed the log, and checked out the website. Never actually logged that cache online though, and it's long-archived now.

Ah, the apparent importance of a stash note!

 

Geocaching certainly made me look around at more stumps and boulder piles while out on hikes.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I've found about seven letterboxes whilst looking for caches. Found two 'cache not published' that were too close to other caches. Only one I've found unexpectedly was a moving cache. My sistr and I were looking for a cache. She said "Here it is." I was on the other side of the tree and said "Here it is." She found the moving cache.

[+Sol seaker]

I've found a couple.

I was with non-caching friends who did not want me to be caching as we hiked through a cache filled park. I just kept my eyes open as we walked and did spot a likely place. They're harder to find without a GPS.

 

Another time I found the final a multi under a bridge that was disabled and presumed gone.. I signed it then went to log it online and realized it was a multi. I asked the cache owner if I should still log it because I hadn't found the waypoints. He said YES log it, I had found it. And he was really happy to have his cache found and back in the game.

[+Sol seaker]

Double post

Edited January 9, 2013 by Sol seaker

[+blg723]

I found one after see a suspicious yellow jeep with Tb numbers on them stop near me. I decided to check it out after they left and i found it.

Edited January 9, 2013 by blg723

[+LightHouseSeekers]

Once upon a time I picked out a location with Google earth to place a cache and prepared a cache page for it. Drove the location to pick the precise spot for placement and found this unpublished cache on the other side of the tree. Found out later it being held for publication to be released in conjunction with an event.

[+briansnat]

I've found caches by accident twice, both while looking for a place to hide a cache. In one case it was the final stage of a multi and in the other it was a recently hidden cache that had yet to be published. I logged found its on both of them because I found them. What else am I going to log, a DNF?

[+captnemo]

I found two caches that might fit here. The first one I was on the way to a cache when I found another one quite a ways from GZ. Opened it signed the log but then when on to GZ where I found another. Turns out both were put out by the CO and when the first one came up MIA so the CO placed another. Turns out both were still out there. Only got 1 smiley and not sure what the CO did.

 

The next time was on a off-road trip with a group when one of the group pointed out a cache he had stumbled on to me. Container was labeled as a Geocache, a log with signatures but no GC#. Checked the coordinates when I got home and found nothing listed. Posted here and one of the moderators answered that he couldn't finda anything either. A mystery that remains unsolved.

[+Planet]

Got this log on a difficult multicache I share with Mopar and GeoHo today:

 

Up The Junction found Planet MoHo (Multi-cache) at 1/9/2013

 

Log Date: 1/9/2013 I was on a hike in Huntington Park, I ventured to one of my favorite spots in the park to show it to a friend. When we arrived I noticed an ammo box that should not be there. I had never heard of Geocaching so I examined the box carefully and opened it with a small level of trepidation. What I found inside was terrific! I had long heard of these types of treasure hunts and wanted to be a part of one. There is no doubt that while this was an accident the next geocache I find will not be!

 

I have already emailed, received a reply, and have started a conversation with this new cacher, to offer assistance if needed, perhaps even to hold a welcome event for him.

[+RIclimber]

One time My family stopped at a historic sign on the side of the road, about 400 miles from home. I looked over and spotted a film can in the guardrail.

 

Once while walking back to the car after not finding the first part of a 13 stage multi, I found #7, but then couldn't find #9.

 

I've also found 3 caches while letterboxing, but as I was looking for something at the time and both hobbies tend to hide them in the same places I don't count that as stumbled upon. I've also found 20+ letterboxes while caching.

Edited January 10, 2013 by RIclimber

[+terrkan78]

I messed up on a puzzle, but the wrong coords I came up with yielded a cache - a mid-stage of a multi. I just assumed it was a puzzle with a multi element (though the cache page made no mention of that).

 

I DNFd the next stage, logged a DNF on the puzzle and didn't think twice about it for months until I started a nearby multi and it led me to this same spot (and I figured out what I had done).

[+cwgrizz]

This thread brings up two memories of finds. The first, I was out hunting and came upon a container marked "Official Geocache". In the location it was in and not wanting to get into any trouble, I did not even open it to see what was inside. That night when back at camp, we talked about what I had found around the campfire. No one in camp had a clue what it could be. Mining claim, geological research records, etc. ??

 

Years later, after purchasing a GPSr to be used while hunting and other outdoor activities, I discovered "geocaching". I signed up on the GS website thinking it would be a great way to become accustomed with using the GPSr. The first cache I found, was without the GPSr as I forgot to load the coordinates into the GPSr, but was familiar with the general location and I had read the clue.

 

Sometime later, I remembered the hunting trip and the strange find and realized that it was a cache, however, I can't for the life of me remember exactly where we were at. Ha~

 

Since, I haven't found any caches accidently, but I have found a few letterboxes while searching for caches.

[+maxx borchovski]

I've not been caching very long but am amazed on how many caches I must have walked past over the years without realising they were there. Nowadays however if I am going anywhere I tend to do a search of the area on the web site before I set out, so I know if there are any caches I'll be passing in advance, so surprise caches will be a rarity for me.

[+OZ2CPU]

also you all know how the geocaching.com site advise people to place caches :

 

PLACE the physical container.

Record its cords.

make online webpage.

see if you are lucky it can be puplished.

if not approved, leave the container, or pick it up...

[+storchburp]

A friend of mine came upon a fairly large cache while hunting, and he did not have an internet connection back then. He used a whole log page to write about how we are all insane nutters to climb to the top of a windy, icy mountain just to swap novelty erasers and drew a few silly stick figure cartoons expressing his disbelief...but left behind a keychain just to entertain us anyway.

[+redsox_mark]

Never happened to me.

 

I have found both a Letterbox and a Cist (a French based game) while looking for a Geocache.

[+sparklefingers]

I've never stumbled on a cache before. like a previous poster I tend to check the area I'm going to out on the website and with the ap I am forever pressing find nearby caches I would like to stumble on one by accident one day though.

[+Ma & Pa]

Here is an edited log from 2005. We were about an hour from home in an area that we were not too familiar with. We had found a few caches and I wanted to find a place to hide a cache for a puzzle I had been working on.

 

************************

 

...... When the GPS showed the closest cache to be 13 kms away, I noticed a possible area to hide my puzzle cache. I parked in a picnic park and got out and scouted the area and decided that there were possiblities for hiding a cache. I went back to the truck and prepared the container.

 

I tried placing it in five or six locations but they all seemed to be too well travelled or too obvious or impossible to conceal. I was ready to give up when I spotted what seemed to be a 5 foot high stump in the woods. I bush wacked in to give it a look.

 

Well it was not really a stump but it was actually a rotten stump of a birch that had literally turned to sawdust but was still being held together by its thick bark. There was no cavity at the top of the stump but I thought I could push the large tobacco container down into the soft wood. That didnt work. The whole thing collapsed with saw dust (or whatever it was) all over my sandalled feet.

 

I wasn't ready to give up. I decided to place my container in the crook at the base of the two attached trees and cover it with the thick birch bark from the stump. I didn't have enough bark so I pulled some more from the remainder of the decayed stump. The second time I did that, the rest of the stump fell apart and more sawdust tumbled out and a LOCK AND LOCK CONTAINER full of stuff.

 

I was more than a little surprised. I had no idea what cache it was but I signed the log and placed the cache where I had intended to hide mine. I returned to the truck and told MA the sad story of why I hadn't found a hiding spot.

 

 

PA

[+mdplayers]

My son and his Boy Scout troop found a stage of a multi in a old stone wall once. They were goofing around the wall during a hike and someone spotted the container. They told me about it when they returned to the campsite after their hike and I explained what it was. My son was familiar enough with geocaching to know to leave the container in the wall where they found it.

 

I never have gone back and done that multi... Time for a trip!

[+TheMasses]

I have found an archived cache in the woods while searching for a letterbox, a stage of an archived multi on a nature trail while searching for a letterbox, and an old letterbox while searching for a different letterbox.... hmmm ... I'm sensing a theme here....

[nonaeroterraqueous]

The first geocache I ever found was before I knew what geocaching was (I had heard something of it, but I didn't have a full grasp of the concept). I read the labelling on the outside and left it where I found it, thinking that it was a game piece placed for a single day's use. I figured the players were probably out there in the bushes looking for this thing. I never even opened it.

 

The second semi-accidental find was at an old bridge known for having geocaches come and go like a revolving door. I happened to be in the area, so I checked to see if there was a new geocache that I hadn't looked for yet. Sure enough, there was one, and it looked as though someone else had stumbled upon it also, judging by its terrible condition.

 

Third semi-accidental find was when I was at a spectacular end to a trail with a great view. I had been geocaching that day, and there were no non-PMO caches listed for that spot, but the place was too remarkable to not have a cache, especially when there was a whole trail of caches leading to it. Thinking I might find a premium cache, I looked for geotrails, until I happened upon a Terracache. I made what was probably the very best swag trade, ever, that day.

[+simpjkee]

If I find a cache that is currently active on the geocaching website, I log it as found. I can think of very few exception.

 

In one instance, I logged an archived cache because I was caching with paper and it had been archived between the time I printed the cache page and actually found the cache.

 

I have stumbled upon a puzzle cache (that was listed incorrectly), whose final location was within 50 feet of a traditional cache.

 

I can not ever remember a time when I found a cache by mistake before I started caching. I also can't recall ever seeing someone geocaching before I started geocaching. I have wondered though if I ever played the role of muggle for some cacher before I knew about the game.

[+Oxford Stone]

The other day I was looking for a multi-cache and as it was under trees decided to ignore GPS and go with my instinct. The hint was face high so when I found a cache chest high I tutted to myself, signed the nice clean bit of paper and walked back to my car. It was only then (in a bit of a stupor, it was freezing!) that I thought to myself, hang on that was a different name... I'd actually found an unpublished cache - which it turns out having exchanged messages with the CO has been turned down as, you've guessed it, too close to the multi! I've said that if they manage to relocate it in the same immediate vicinity but more than the magic 0.1 mile from the original co-ords of the multi, I'd like to claim my 1st FTF - but if they move it a long way away, that'll just go down as one of those oddities.

 

In just 3 months of doing this I've stumbled across all sorts of other unspeakable things but that's the downside of doing a lot of urban caches in winter.

[+JKMonkey]

Don't know why it would be considered cheating, I mean you did find it, which is the point of the game.

[+WeeLurk]

Me and my husband (before he was my husband) were wandering around a cemetery, he picked a big old tree to get on his knee and ask me to marry him. We were in the process of discussing the age of the tree and all the things in life that the tree had seen (including this awkward moment) when he noticed the little box sitting next to a stone. He had been geocaching before and knew exactly what it was. I had never geocached before and watched while he opened the box to find a beautiful Rosarie. We are both Catholic and this meant a lot to both of us at such a great moment. That was the beginning of or team Weelurk and our caching as a couple.

[+badger10]

I was out with my daughter. She was doing a multi that I had found earlier. It was underneath a raised wooden sidewalk along a nature trail. When she found it I told her that is not the side I found it on. I checked where I had found it and you guessed it. I also found it. Turns out the second cache was placed when someone HID it better and the CO put out a replacement. We also found a letterbox cache while looking for a guardrail powertrail cache. The geocache was about 20 feet away.

[+Sharks-N-Beans]

That's how we started...stopped to check out a cool location on a bike ride and our son, OPE18, found a pill bottle wrapped in camo. Luckily, a cacher had a homemade signature item in it w/ GC.com on it and we followed-up.

 

The second time, we were setting-up our first hide, a multi. While placing the home stretch, we stumbled upon the final of a puzzle. We had to work our multi around that, but at least we got to log it.

[+Andromeda321]

Pre-caching I'm pretty sure I stumbled across a cache while hiking when I was a teenager. I always thought geocaching sounded fun but never did it because I had no car or GPS (so I only got into caching when I could try it on my smartphone).

 

If virtuals count, I traveled a lot pre-caching thanks to a semester abroad in New Zealand and a few months off to travel around the world, so I've since noticed I have had my photo taken in front of a few virtual caches back in those days. Never logged them as caches though because I don't think it really counts!

[+wmpastor]

It's how I got into geocaching - by finding one while I was out on a hike. I made it up to the ridge and sat down at a bench to take in the view - and saw a tupperware container in a nearby bush! Read the info, signed the log, and checked out the website. Never actually logged that cache online though, and it's long-archived now.

Ah, the apparent importance of a stash note!

 

Geocaching certainly made me look around at more stumps and boulder piles while out on hikes.

[+wmpastor]

Are you saying that geocaching has caused you to lift skirts at every opportunity? (I mean lamppost skirts, of course.)

[+Manville Possum]

Twice, one was a FTF on a listing that had not been published yet, and the other was one that I had overlooked on the map. Both times I was averaging coordinates to place a geocache container.

[+geoing nuts]

Here's a log I wrote for Little Stone Mountain which is now archived.

 

"I found a cache!!!" was heard echoing throughout the parking lot as I was getting our season passes out of the truck. Much to my surprise, it was my youngest son doing the yelling (age 7). I might add that we were not looking for caches and did not plan on doing any in the park. It just so happened that we parked by what we call Little Stone Mountain and the kids decided to climb on it while they waited on me. My son said he saw a spot that looked like a good cache site and decided to check it out, and found one. Luckily, I had the gpsr in the truck so we could save the cords and log it. Thanks for an easy one that was found by the youngest member of Team WalkingWithNature. (name has since been changed to Geoing Nuts)

[+harbhippo]

One time Mrs Hippo and I were on a drive and had loaded a route query into the GPSer, but somehow we had gotten way way off track, and were on a parallel highway, just out of range of the PQ. We stopped at a historical marker, as we often do when traveling, and we thought there ought to be a cache here. We glanced at the nearby fence and saw a container hanging on it. Signed the log, recorded the coordinates, and logged it online later.

[+Ma & Pa]

Here is a little different slant on this topic.

 

We went to find a cache about 1.5 kms down a boardwalk on a sand dune.

 

Here is our log

 

This cache is one of those caching coincidences. When we arrived at the end of the boardwalk, there was a couple relaxing there. We didn't worry about them since we would be going under to look for the cache. As we were looking , the man came down to join us and asked if there was a geocache here. He then showed us his gps. He had come to the Dune on a whim and had no idea there was a cache here, and he did not have it in his gps. We shared the find with him.

 

Here is their log

 

we went to the Irving Center on our way back from camping in Kouchibouguac National Park, this was a last minute decision and we didn't plan to do any geocaching there. I had my gps with me to register my walks. anyway long story short we met a couple "Ma & Pa" that were looking for this geocache, we started talking while searching and end up finding it at the same time. we had a good time and this was an unschedule geocache. isn't the geocaching community great!

[wwjd7]

Yep, twice. Was walking along a trail and caught a glimpse of a square object sticking out of a pile of rocks over yonder. Was an ammo can, turned out to be the final of a multi.

 

Another time I came across a camo’d film container laying in the middle of a trail. There were a few hard to read signatures inside it, no GC number. Not knowing where it was supposed to be hidden, I hid it within arm’s reach where I found it off the trail. Couldn’t find anything online, to this day I don’t know what it belongs to. I know where it is though... if I’m ever in that area again, I’ll check it out to see if it’s still there.