My first cache ever placed was......

[+TheWeatherWarrior]

Tell us a story about the first cache you ever placed. Give us a link (Archived or not). Tell us if it was special or just a quickie to get your feet wet.

[+TheWeatherWarrior]

Archived: http://coord.info/GC7D77

 

I was still rather new to the game. Back then there were only about a couple dozen caches in my county and maybe 100 in all of Maryland. I started the game officially in March 2002, and by October I had 20 finds (including the first ever hidden in the eastern WV panhandle) I was ready to contribute. The site was one that I figured was both of isolation but interest to those that visited. It was at the Rockville Civic Center which has a Mansion (actually small in terms of today's McMansions). I wanted to place it before the annual Antique Car show in hopes that a few more folks would be there that would also like to grab the cache. Back then there was no app, and most cachers hand wrote the coordinates in a notebook or directly printed the page out.

 

It went from October 2002 to late 2007. It got archived because I was recovering from surgery (just had a kidney transplant) and couldn't get to the site before it was archived. I really had hoped to keep it alive, even by 2007 standards it was one of the older caches in the area. Later I almost placed another cache there but another cache showed up nearby and I never did. Now I'll be out of state.

[+BAIN!]

ARCHIVED: http://coord.info/GC1T465

 

This was placed probably 6 months after I started caching. I think it was placed in Spring of 2009. I would consider it a getting feet wet placement. I did it close to home so that I could maintain it easily if it needed it. When it finally needed maintaining, I needed to archive it because the city decided to tear down the tree it was placed at the base of and do some other work that made it impossible to replace. It was a nice cache but thanks to its archiving, there have been better caches placed recently that wouldn't have been able to because of proximity.

[+ByronForestPreserve]

Not archived, but I'm thinking about it: http://coord.info/GC10PZY

 

I had geocached with friends before, but not on my own. I put that one out in 2007 with a troop of Scouts with a borrowed GPSr. Right now the reason I'm keeping it is because it's a great cache for other scout troops to find, and for a while was a good spot to drop off TBs. Visits have definitely decreased, though, and I'm planning a more interesting cache for that area for when I do archive it. Oh, and it's had the same log book this whole time, so that will make a cool memento.

[+Condorito]

My first cache was hidden in May 2009, around 9-10 months after i became a member...

 

It is called "The Rock" (see it here) and it has been my most successful cache so far. It is in a place where hardly anyone goes, and it is on top of of a (very) large rock. We live around 35km away form the city, and the rock is near our house. From the top you can see to the city, and you have 360 degree views... It is a really nice place. The terrain to get there is pretty hard, and it has only been found 18 times, but it has 7 fav points, so i'm pretty happy with it. I don't think i will archive it any time soon... It is still going strong...

 

The photos explain it better... Come and find it!

[+Harry Dolphin]

My first cache hide? Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotteburg

A month and a half into the game, I hid my first. A beautiful spot. Even an ammo can! About a mile-and-a-half hike in. Maybe a hundred feet of climb. Hiking permit required. NWCDC (Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Commission) 8/28/2004. 51 finds in 8.5 years!

[+Don_J]

South Park, Chatsworth on 11/06/05

 

I hid it about 6 months after I started, in a rocky area of Chatsworth Park South, a park that I have spent most of life in and had surprisingly less than a handful of caches in it and the neighboring State Historic Park.

 

It had some good comments and I had to adjust the difficulty up after advice in the first log from a very respected cacher. By April of the next year it was obvious that I hadn't picked a very good spot as the poison oak came in 15' high and thick. I had to wear full rain gear to go in and retrieve it.

[+geodarts]

My first hide is Bastille By The Bay. I had not been playing the game very long but I knew as soon as I started that this would be my first hide. A small piece of open space (shipwreck point) that most people would not see unless there was a cache in that location. The San Francisco Bay. A rocky promontory and beach. And an infamous state prison that I often have to visit. Johnny Cash sang about it. Herb Caen coined the name of the cache.

 

I recently had to move it due to changes in the original location. Although I am archiving many of my caches this is one if the core that I will keep active as long as I play this game.

[+ChileHead]

Will hit 10 years this summer: Moss Lake

 

I had heard about geocaching a few weeks before our summer trip to the Adirondacks, and decided to place my first one near one of our favorite family hikes. It's about a 3 mile hike round trip, with no real way of short circuiting it. It's gone missing a few times over the years due to Mr Paul Repak (aka cache maggot) but I'm able to keep it going each time he stole it.

 

The hide is actually pretty easy, as it is (currently) an ammo can and it's a typical ammo can in the woods kind of hide.

 

I use this as an example of why a litmus test for new hiders requiring 100 finds (or whatever) isn't a good idea. I only had 3-4 hides when I hid this, and it's still going strong even though it doesn't get a ton of hits due to the longer hike.

[+StarBrand]

11+ years and counting for mine. Jail Rock Nebraska

 

Its got the original ammobox and remains a local favorite. My best description of it comes from this log:

 

This is one of the funniest geocaching stories ever. I'm still pretty new at this so I made a rookie error and turned too early into a cow pasture. There happens to be a horse trail up to about 200 meters from the cache so I just thought it was a very clever hide. I was with 15 exchange students and dragged them through the field littered with cow pies only to have my gps battery die at about 500 m from the cache (that I now know I couldn't have gotten to). Disappointed and exhausted after a long drive and then a mile hike with no reward, we vowed to return. We came back with 15 more exchange students, so now trekking through this field with 30 people and a full battery, STILL don't find it (since I'm in a totally WRONG place). My students are now hellbent on finding this thing. We find the right road, but because of the recent snowmelt and subsequent drenching rains, there's a huge mudpit in the middle of the road up to the rocks. My boss tells me to stop and that I'll get stuck. "Let it go." she says... HA! My students are now screaming in anticipation as I rev my mini-van and back up to get a run at it. I hit the mudpit around 45 mph and managed to barely make it through. At the rocks, we found the cache and I think we were heard for miles around... I think we would've cued inspirational movie music if we could have. Thanks for giving me such an amazing memory. TFTC! See pic of the excitement and will log on the student's account I made for their hides as well.

Edited March 19, 2013 by StarBrand

[+StarBrand]

you cursed me - just got a DNF and missing container log on my cache --- sigh....

[+jellis]

My first cache was placed in 07/02/2006 called Park of Art. Placed across the street from where I worked and though I no longer work there, the cache remains and has had 436 finds so far.

[+fbingha]

Dude, Where's My Key? - Hidden 11/11/2012

 

A fairly standard find the travel bug key and open a locked ammo box cache. Still, finders seem to enjoy the location, exercise and the mechanics of finding the travel bug.

[+Chief301]

My first cache was The Sandlot

 

Just a simple micro (match container) in a tree crotch at a local park, hidden 1/22/11. Still active, but I'd like to think I have moved up to better hides since then (as evidenced by the fact that it still has no Fave points and most of my other caches do). My only cache hidden with an iPhone, I got a GPSr after that.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Chief301

[Mr.Yuck]

Will hit 10 years this summer: Moss Lake

 

I had heard about geocaching a few weeks before our summer trip to the Adirondacks, and decided to place my first one near one of our favorite family hikes. It's about a 3 mile hike round trip, with no real way of short circuiting it. It's gone missing a few times over the years due to Mr Paul Repak (aka cache maggot) but I'm able to keep it going each time he stole it.

 

The hide is actually pretty easy, as it is (currently) an ammo can and it's a typical ammo can in the woods kind of hide.

 

I use this as an example of why a litmus test for new hiders requiring 100 finds (or whatever) isn't a good idea. I only had 3-4 hides when I hid this, and it's still going strong even though it doesn't get a ton of hits due to the longer hike.

 

Pssst. It's 2013. Could you add the parking coordinates as a Waypoint? Or have you thought about it, and like that old-time feel to the cache page? Interesting, I suppose that would be the world's most famous cache maggot, Repak's, former area of operation. I will put it on my to-do list, although I have never once been to that area of the Adirondacks. Almost all time spent in the high peaks region, or enroute to it from Watertown.

 

I imagine I only had about 10 finds, but there weren't 1,000 caches within 10 miles of my house either. My first hide was in a County park on a man-made Island accessable only by a footbridge. It was about 3/8 mile from parking, and was actually pretty easy. Lasted about 3 years before it went missing and pulled the plug. It was actually a pretty busy and "open" Island.

[+-CJ-]

My first one was placed in the end of 2002 next to a ruined church deep in woods. Took me about two hours to get there through the forest without any paths. Luckily bogs were already frozen and it was not so hard. The cache has lived a long and lucky life, it has never been muggled or replaced. I archived it recently because the local community made a road into the woods, built a new church and a series of small houses around so the place became rather popular and lost its charming atmosphere.

[+Sharks-N-Beans]

My first cache was The Sandlot

 

Just a simple micro (match container) in a tree crotch at a local park, hidden 1/22/11. Still active, but I'd like to think I have moved up to better hides since then (as evidenced by the fact that it still has no Fave points and most of my other caches do). My only cache hidden with an iPhone, I got a GPSr after that.

Maybe if it was published? :laughing: :laughing:

 

xurl="http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d3be3ffb-4947-476f-a396-12a0f254dcfe" ]The Sandlot[/urlx

[+Chief301]

My first cache was The Sandlot

 

Just a simple micro (match container) in a tree crotch at a local park, hidden 1/22/11. Still active, but I'd like to think I have moved up to better hides since then (as evidenced by the fact that it still has no Fave points and most of my other caches do). My only cache hidden with an iPhone, I got a GPSr after that.

Maybe if it was published? :laughing: :laughing:

 

xurl="http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d3be3ffb-4947-476f-a396-12a0f254dcfe" ]The Sandlot[/urlx

 

It is 😊. I must have screwed up something posting the link. Darn iPhone .....😬

[+Chief301]

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d3be3ffb-4947-476f-a396-12a0f254dcfe

[+YaYa&PaPa]

muggled/stolen twice before i could get it published......

[+JL_HSTRE]

A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama - http://coord.info/GC2A55Y

 

Placed in June 2010 after I had been caching for 6 months and had found a little over 100 caches.

 

24 Finds, 0 DNFs. Archived in March 2011 due to construction.

 

It was a simple cache placement less than a mile from my home so I could easily deal with any problems. I learned waterproof swim cans aren't. Placed using a Droid smartphone, but the coords were spot on.

 

I would call it a Perfectly Acceptable Cache: unremarkable (I wouldn't expect it to get any Favorites), but not a park-n-grab and not in a location with any muggle issues.

[AZcachemeister]

My first cache ever placed was......

 

Pretty cool.

It still is.

I just barely managed to get under the 'NO MORE VIRTUALS' fence.

I knew a physical container at the location wouldn't last, but I also knew the site was exceptionally worthy.

 

With 101 favorites and 1,039 finds, I guess the community agrees.

 

Hi Jolly

[+Planet]

My first cache ever was hidden in 2002, and is still active.

It was written about in this book:

 

It's called Cathedral In The Pines and is located near a beautiful waterfall and section of river.

 

And has even been found by Jeremy.

I hid it so well with camouflage, that on my first maintenance visit, when someone reported that the camouflage had fallen off, it took me what felt like 45 minutes to find my own cache. And it is a large gallon size Rubbermaid jar. (Still on the original container 10 winters later, btw). I did not replace the camouflage!

[+xipotec]

My first cache was place this week!

Troll Bridge

http://coord.info/GC3WQKQ

I hope this is the beginning of many more! I have 3 more planned already, 1 to be a multi.

Edited March 23, 2013 by xipotec

[+outdoorsaddix]

Mine was a LPC at my local very unique (looks like a barn) community centre. It was 2006, I was 16 and I thought the idea of hiding a cache under a lamp pole skirt was absolutely genius!...... Not so much any more, I am seriously considering either archiving it (don't want to as it is the oldest cache in my neighbourhood) or probably relocating it with a different container this summer.

 

West Rouge Community Centre Cache

[+simpjkee]

GC14RYY

 

I wrote a whole report on the cache in my archive note on the cache page complete with pictures of the containers used. The first couple logs I got on it were not very flattering, but they were totally spot on. It was a crappy location, with a lot of trash, and what turned out to be a crappy container too. I basically fit in to every "n00b cacher's first hide" sterotype on this one. I like to think I have improved since then. I did however get it mentioned on Podcacher so that was kinda cool.

[+Don_J]

GC14RYY

 

I wrote a whole report on the cache in my archive note on the cache page complete with pictures of the containers used. The first couple logs I got on it were not very flattering, but they were totally spot on. It was a crappy location, with a lot of trash, and what turned out to be a crappy container too. I basically fit in to every "n00b cacher's first hide" sterotype on this one. I like to think I have improved since then. I did however get it mentioned on Podcacher so that was kinda cool.

 

I found one of those fake dog food containers outside of an animal shelter once. They are not bad containers until a geocacher with a lack of imagination gets a hold of it and decides that brute force is the answer. It took much longer, but the same thing eventually happened.

[+FunnyNose]

My first cache B@d B0yz A simple resistor value cache.

Final takes you to a great view of the city and still has the original log in it.

[+briansnat]

Billy E. 9/11/01

 

I found my first cache in late Sept of 2001. I thought it was fun and immediately decided to hide my own. I chose one of my favorite overlooks in Ramapo Mountain State Forest on a hiking trail that I maintain. It was about a mile and a half hike from the parking lot. I used a gallon sized Rubbermaid container filled with all kinds of goodies, including two vacuum sealed cigars, a new horn I had bought for my Honda Civic that it turnd out I didn't need and numerous other items. The tragic events of 9/11 were fresh in my mind when I placed it. My brother had lost his best friend in the attack, so I dedicated the cache to his memory.

 

Because of the size of the container I hid it away from the overlook, and about 150 feet from the trail with instructions how to get to the overlook. My original page was overtly political and would not pass muster today, as it would be considered an agenda. I've subsequently toned it down to conform to the guidelines. A few months after placing it, I replaced the original container with a .50 cal ammo box and it is there to this day. I removed the cigars after about two years because of the prohibition on tobacco (and because I felt like smoking them). They were still in excellent shape.

 

I believe the Honda horn is still among the contents many years later. At least it was the last time I was there.

 

Here is the view near the cache

 

 

The cache actually made the news once when several cachers from Billy's home town made a pilgrimage there:

 

Edited March 25, 2013 by briansnat

[+TheWeatherWarrior]

you cursed me - just got a DNF and missing container log on my cache --- sigh....

You're welcome