Caches that haunt our dreams

[Selrahc_Llednura]

I'm sure that I'm not alone in being stuck on a geocache for an extended period of time so I want to hear either success stories of some cruel caches that you guys have either found or cannot find for the life of us.

 

There's one more or less around the corner from my house, meant to be hidden on a staircase. I've even asked for an additional hint from the cache owner but still I cannot find it. I've made 4 trips to GZ and come away empty handed and feeling defeated every time. Today I'm attempting it again, I believe it's hidden in between a crevice in the staircase, I've read through many other logs (it hasn't gone missing either) and even triple checked the the co-ordinates aren't out. It's only a 3/5 difficult and 2/5 terrain so it's bugging me that it's been giving me so much trouble.

 

So, describe to me some caches that have you completely stumped, as I can't be the only one!

[+CanadianRockies]

Lamppost skirt. I'm sure I must have DNFed at least a half dozen of these before I came across a cache hidden in the middle of a university parking lot with nothing else around for a good 100 feet other than a lamppost at GZ. I DNFed that one, too. But I returned early the next morning when nobody else was present, and I searched and searched. Finally, it occurred to me to see if the skirt could be moved. Sure enough, I lifted it, and there was the cache. Who knew? I gave it a rave review and would have awarded it a favorite point if they had existed at that time.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Corrugated metal roofing...

 

A micro taped to the end of a long (relatively stiff) wire. Only the very tip of the wire extending from beneath the roofing material.

Nearly impossible for a "vertically challenged" person. Bad enough for a tall person.

It's VERY easy to overlook that tiny wire.

Combine that with a zillion other possible hide locations....

 

Won't say how many trips back to the scene of the crime it took!

[+Mudfrog]

I had a tough time with the first projection type cache that i ever tried. I knew there had to be a way to come up with the coordinates but i had the hardest time figuring that out. Thought about it and thought about it but nothing was clicking.

 

Not sure if i dreamed about it but i do remember that "Aha" moment coming around 2am after waking from a sound sleep. Got out of bed, grabbed a paper map, ruler, and pencil then proceeded to plot where the final was located. I was so excited that i didn't get any more sleep that morning.

 

Made the over 100 mile trip back out the following weekend and it turned out i was about 50 feet off. That was memorable!

[+Pork King]

There was a cache (now archived) that was over 100 miles from my house. "Paved Paradise, Put Up a Parking Lot". It was a mini micro in the middle of a well kept but abandoned parking lot. The first time I attempted it, I was in town for an event, and it was just on the way. We searched for about 20-30 minutes. This one truly haunted me. A cache in the middle of nothing! There was literally nothing at GZ, pavement, a curb, a small island of grass. A month later, me and another cacher drove down over 100 miles just to search for this cache. We looked and looked and looked. It was shortly after a maintenance check, so I was certain it was there. No luck. The following week, me and a different cacher, who had found it before, although when it was in a different location, drove down early that morning. I spotted it (with no help) after just a couple of minutes of searching. I was sooooooo glad I finally got the smiley on this one!

[+Ma & Pa]

Everytime we visited our son in California we would try for a cache that was at ground level on a busy street. There was a high metal fence running along the adjacent property. At GZ there was a 15 foot by 15 foot recess where the fence went into the property I think there was some kind of municipal pipe at that location. In any event GZ was in that recess and there was a high fence keeping us out of the adjacent property. So we knew it was in that recess and the title and the hint indicated quite clearly that it was at ground level. We searched that 15x15 square a number of times with no luck.

 

One day I removed the cap off one of the metal fence posts, reached inside and found a magnet. A cord was attached to the magnet which I pulled to retrieve the cache which was on the ground inside the post. As we were leaving, a security guard approached on the other side of the fence and wanted to know what we were doing at the post. We explained and showed the cache. He smiled and walked away.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Ma & Pa

[+niraD]

My record so far is 6 DNFs before finally finding the cache. That was for a custom nano-cache. I had touched it multiple times during my previous searches without recognizing it for what it was. And to make it worse, I had found a similar custom cache previously.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Nano on a train engine. When I found it, the cache was hidden in such a place that it couldn't be seen, but had to be found by feel. It took me four visits and over 3 hours of searching before I had it in hand.

 

There was another on near a waterfall that I think took six visits before I found it. A couple of those times there were too many muggles near by and I think it was missing at my fourth attempt. The cache was moved (by the CO) after that, and I searched at least twice after that before I found it.

[Selrahc_Llednura]

Wow, some great stories guys! I just got back from my 5th search for this particular geocache, was hidden under one of the fixed concrete blocks on a staircase. I KNEW it was there but getting to it was another question. Felt so silly when I eventually found it though, should have taken, at most, 2 attempts. Here's a picture of me celebrating the find, I get a little too passionate sometimes! Haha

 

[+Panther&Pine]

I've spent hours and hours and hours looking for a cache, it is still a DNF so in July I'll start communing with my favorite Silverton trees again.

[+popokiiti]

There was one on a beach near where we live that we didn't find....and then one night I dreamed we did. Sure enough, it was one of those evil hides, behind what I had tapped with my hiking stick on our first trip. The dream came true.

[+humboldt flier]

Nineteen hours over the span of three months before I located "Let Me Draw You A Map" in the sand dunes west of Eureka, Calif.

 

I was tickled pink after having made the find.

[+BeorntheViking]

There is one that my Fiancee and I have been to about 4 times and have not been able to find it, others were either finding it or just logging it late. More recently it has picked up some more DNFs.

 

The hint for it doesn't help too much. It uses 'hobo symbols' to direct you to the cache. Three rocks stacked. Problem is..the whole place is rocky and there is high muggle activity in the summer so any rocks stacked get moved VERY easily.

 

This one has been a thorn in my side for the better part of a year now.

[+terrkan78]

AAUGH! It's only a few blocks from my home. I've lost count of how many times I've looked for it. I'd swear it's not there, but others find it on occasion.

[+PigsnChickens]

There's one pretty close to our house that we have looked for 6 times with 5-8 of us (we have a bunch of kids ) for over 4 hours total so far and we STILL can't find it. A lot of "this was easy!" And a lot of other people DNFing. Its a nano, supposed to be easy. The easier its supposed to be, most of the time, the harder it is for us. Ugh!!

[+eightwednesday]

This one, No Overnight Truck Parking, is slowly killing me. I've searched, my husband's searched, many friends have also searched, and I've received several hints that, in my opinion, should be dead ringers. Though it's out where my in-laws live, three hours from home. In fact, I hadn't thought about it lately... then I opened up this thread. Dangit!

[martydom]

Hey, I've been caching for 3 days now (found 4 so far) out of 7, so I'm pretty amateur. There is one cache which has me at a loss. It is definitely on this sign somewhere, the clue and the coordinates both indicate as such but I simply cannot find it, and worse, when I look at the activity, people are going on about how easy it is and how they spotted it whilst driving past it. Major confidence booster I can tell you lol. Might have to dismantle it soon!!!

[etarace]

I absolutely LOVE that the first response to this topic was a lamp skirt hide. I had looked for one and could not get it. Later that day, found one that was called "an old rusty cover" or something like that. In the holes of the old, rusty cover I could see the cache, and it was only then that I learned that those things just lift right up!

 

The one that haunted my dreams was the one closest to my home. For a while, I was stopping by every day before or after work .. or both. It was AMAZINGLY well camouflaged and in such thick forest that the gps would start going wacky. I sent the CO an email accusing her of putting a Home Again microchip into a local squirrel and calling that a micro in a host. I began to write increasingly insane DNF logs. Eventually, somebody who found it before me took pity on my plight and emailed me a one word hint. With that single word, I went out to the vicinity of the cache and it was so obvious.

 

The good part is now I can fairly easily spot those amazingly well camouflaged caches deep in the woods. The bad part is I overlook the film canisters and make most hides harder than they need to be in my own mind.

[+NeverSummer]

This one: In Honor of R.J.

 

My in-laws live near the park, and I've been seeking this one each time I'm in town to visit. Even with help from the owner and a most-recent finder I came up empty every time I've been there.

 

Hardest 1.5/1.5 I've ever met.

[+JPreto]

Personally is this cache: 1090

 

It´s a D1,5/T1,5 that I went there 4 times already and couldn´t find it...

[+Snoogans]

There is only one time in my life a cache has actually been in a dream. It was a puzzle cache by one of the early pantheon of Houston area geo-gods known as geowyz. A new cache by him was cause for community wide celebration back in aught three and four. I pondered this puzzle for weeks refusing assistance and the answer.., The ACTUAL answer came to me in a dream for reals.

 

I woke up, opened the cache page and wrote down the coords and went back to sleep. The cache was 60 miles from home and to this day I haven't bothered to go get it.

 

Give it a try. The answer is right there.

 

 

The Devil’s Dictum

 

True Heathens reject eagerly every Zoroastrian Elf! Rivers of zealots entering regions obscure, effuse in great heinous torture. Ocular numbness elevates foul orbits. Undulating rivers entwine in grand helical torrents. Needles in naked eyes, foam in vapor eclipses – tormented wonder! Our special Evil, vile Evil, never satisfied. Eleven vexing eternal nights – each issue ghastly hedonist tirades. The hopelessness relinquishes everlasting ecstasy!

 

[+Snoogans]

If you haven't heard of THIS CACHE a look at the picture gallery and it will haunt your dreams until you can get there.

[+Chief301]

I've go two in particular that come to mind....one is supposedly on or near a foot bridge near a college campus, and one is in the parking lot of a huge expo center/rodeo arena/event facility. Been to both locations numerous times and still can't find 'em. I'll usually put caches like that on a Watchlist to see if anyone else is finding them.

[+Chief301]

If you haven't heard of THIS CACHE a look at the picture gallery and it will haunt your dreams until you can get there.

 

Just added that one to my Wish List....looks awesome!

[+terrkan78]

Hey, I've been caching for 3 days now (found 4 so far) out of 7, so I'm pretty amateur. There is one cache which has me at a loss. It is definitely on this sign somewhere, the clue and the coordinates both indicate as such but I simply cannot find it, and worse, when I look at the activity, people are going on about how easy it is and how they spotted it whilst driving past it. Major confidence booster I can tell you lol. Might have to dismantle it soon!!!

Maybe a fake bolt? A magnetic metal plate? A magnetic sticker (with a log sheet on back)? And then again maybe it got lost after the last person found it so it's really not there anymore.

 

There's been many times I've DNFd a cache that others have called "easy." *sigh*