Miracle Find

[+Team Gandalf]

I was travelling in Germany this past spring to visit my sister. I had only loaded some easy caches in my device, figuring I wouldn't want to waste hours hunting for 3+ difficulty caches. During the trip, my sister became very interested in hunting for these treasures. We were on a walk around Heidelberg and stopped for a photo op of the castle from across the river.

 

I did not have a cache loaded on my device in the location that we stopped, but my sister started checking "the normal spots". Magically, her fingers found a handle on a cache hidden in a fence. It was, and still is, one of the most amazing displays of geosenses I've ever seen. (GC1CFMX the 3 terrain is why I didn't have it loaded.)

 

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Is there a name for this type of find? I've been calling it the Miraculous Find.

[+BearsFan11]

When I was a newbie, I was looking for a place to place a few caches. Being a newbie, I didn't check for and available spots, I just went out and looked for good places to hide them. We stopped at a black fence for a drain thing under the road, and as we were walking around looking for places to put a cache, I see a little trail. I follow it for about 10' and at the end, there is a bison tube zip tied to a fence pole. The cache was GC1H7Q7.

[CallMeCrazyKB]

I found an unlisted cache, I'm not sure *why* it's unlisted, if it was at one point listed, or never was listed, or maybe it's premium and I just can't see it, although from the previous logs it looked like it wasn't found often, and I wasn't sure what to do about it at all. I can't log it since it's not listed, but we found it while looking for a hide spot, so I almost feel like I should tell someone it's there to avoid proximity issues.

[+ADKer]

Once when I was on a trip to Italy, the others in my party decided to stop at a fruit stand in Florence. I leaned against a wall to wait for them and happened to glance behind a sign. Low and behold: a nano cache!

[Mr.Yuck]

I found an unlisted cache, I'm not sure *why* it's unlisted, if it was at one point listed, or never was listed, or maybe it's premium and I just can't see it, although from the previous logs it looked like it wasn't found often, and I wasn't sure what to do about it at all. I can't log it since it's not listed, but we found it while looking for a hide spot, so I almost feel like I should tell someone it's there to avoid proximity issues.

 

Many scenarios there. A difficult puzzle cache listed here. The final of a multi cache listed here. A cache listed only on alternative geocaching websites. A letterbox (did all the log entries have colorful hand carved stamps?) In all four cases, they fit the bill of having a small number of log entries.

[+niraD]

I once found an archived cache while researching possible locations for my own hide. I was able to identify it by matching a few of the names and dates in the log. It turned out that someone had "hidden it better" and the CO couldn't find it. Assuming that it was missing again, the CO archived it.

[+The Jester]

I found an unlisted cache, I'm not sure *why* it's unlisted, if it was at one point listed, or never was listed, or maybe it's premium and I just can't see it, although from the previous logs it looked like it wasn't found often, and I wasn't sure what to do about it at all. I can't log it since it's not listed, but we found it while looking for a hide spot, so I almost feel like I should tell someone it's there to avoid proximity issues.

You can try checking with a reviewer about the co-ords of where you found that cache. It could be a Puzzle or Multi final. They can tell you that, or if it's archived.

 

I've found caches without co-ords at least three times now. Once was at a rest area where I'd found a cache before (now archived) and checked to see it there was a new one - and found it! Twice I've been at a cool spot and found, by chance, micro caches hidden there.

[CallMeCrazyKB]

At risk of sounding completely dumb (well, I am admittedly kind of a dork, so I guess it's fitting), what's a letterbox?

[+Bear and Ragged]

At risk of sounding completely dumb (well, I am admittedly kind of a dork, so I guess it's fitting), what's a letterbox?

 

Old school!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing_%28hobby%29

 

Only work on clues (no coordinates!)

The box will have a rubber stamp (usually hand carved) Letterboxers will also have their own hand carved stamp to 'stamp' the log book.

 

Geocaching equivalent is the Letterbox Hybrid.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Bear and Ragged

[Mr.Yuck]

At risk of sounding completely dumb (well, I am admittedly kind of a dork, so I guess it's fitting), what's a letterbox?

 

Old school!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing_%28hobby%29

 

Only work on clues (no coordinates!)

The box will have a rubber stamp (usually hand carved) Letterboxers will also have their own hand carved stamp to 'stamp' the log book.

 

Geocaching equivalent is the Letterbox Hybrid.

 

I actually like the wikipedia article, because it doesn't give people the often false impression that there were letterboxes all over the world since 1854. Thomas Edison was not letterboxing in New Jersey in 1887, OK? They were only in one specific National Park in England until 1998, when modern letterbxing began.

 

Don't worry Callmecrazy, you'll stumble on some while Geocaching. It's inevitable. Perhaps you already have, actually.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Mr.Yuck

[+fuzziebear3]

Recently, I was at a place and hoping that there would be a cache nearby. As I walked to my car to get my GPS, I saw an ammo can behind a bush.

 

I got my GPS, but it was malfunctioning and wasn't showing me any caches (turns out the SD card was dislodged).

I went back and checked the can anyway, and it was a great cache!

[+Viajero Perdido]

I've always considered this one a miracle find: Grizwald's Paradise Cache.

 

A hunter placed a cache waaaay down a quad trail, but mistakenly posted coordinates for the parking spot instead, 6km away. It was eventually archived. That didn't stop Belfrypotters from figuring it out (!), and the cache lives on as Paradise on Electric Avenue.

[+Trotter17]

A few years ago my wife and I were walking along a pond at a nearby campus and we sat down on a small wall. I looked over at a part of the wall and said "I bet there's a geocache here!" Moved a stone or two and found one!

 

I formally logged it a week or two ago!

[+BigLinc16]

Actually what got me into geocaching was a miracle find. Me and my friends were on a nike ride in late april on a trail right behind our house and I saw a tin box in the knot of a massive cotton wood. I went and opened it and it had the note explaining about geocaching and what it is and the web site so we went home, looked it up and figured out what cache it was and logged it and downloaded the free intro app and geocached a little that night! It stuck and it has become our go-to summer activity, and 107 finds later here we are!

[team tisri]

I was travelling in Germany this past spring to visit my sister. I had only loaded some easy caches in my device, figuring I wouldn't want to waste hours hunting for 3+ difficulty caches. During the trip, my sister became very interested in hunting for these treasures. We were on a walk around Heidelberg and stopped for a photo op of the castle from across the river.

 

I did not have a cache loaded on my device in the location that we stopped, but my sister started checking "the normal spots". Magically, her fingers found a handle on a cache hidden in a fence. It was, and still is, one of the most amazing displays of geosenses I've ever seen. (GC1CFMX the 3 terrain is why I didn't have it loaded.)

 

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Is there a name for this type of find? I've been calling it the Miraculous Find.

 

Not really any different from when muggles find caches in unusual areas. The main difference is that you didn't throw it in the river.

[+SwineFlew]

Yes... trying to find final of puzzles. I found a few that way. I wouldn't call it miracle find because once you are a geocacher, you think like a geocacher.

[+6NoisyHikers]

When our GPS was in the shop being replaced (WE LOVE MAGELLAN!) we took a walk in our local park and found three caches including a puzzle just by looking in likely places. Of course, we knew in advance there were caches in the park, just not where.

[+larryc43230]

My geocaching partner-in-crime, Little Truffle-Pig, found a cache while not looking for one not long after she started caching. Here's the note she left on the cache page:

 

PART 1 - No GPS Needed!

My novice eye spotted this site when I came for a bit of trailwalking during a break in recent frigid weather. The trail itself is easy -- my 84-year-old mother has done it. But I was solo, the last few steps would have been hazardous in the residue of a week's worth of snow, and I had no pen on me for the log.

 

A chat with my Geocaching Guru larryc43230 in Columbus confirmed that a posting matched my description of what I saw. (Not for nothing am I called the Little Truffle-Pig! ) Stand by for Part 2: I shall return when footing is safer and I have a pen on me.

 

(NOTE added by larryc43230: Well, I'm impressed. Little truffle pig has joined me on a couple of caching adventures, but she doesn't own a GPS unit, and didn't even know there was a cache in that area until she spotted the telltale signs. She asked me to confirm via the Web site whether there's a cache where she thinks she spotted one, and the rest is history. She does have a knack for spotting these things. )

 

This was followed a month later by her Find log:

 

Found it 03/01/2009 PART 2: The triumphant return of the Little Truffle Pig!

3/1/09 - (St. David's Day, Patron Saint of Wales)

 

As promised (after waiting for the trail to thaw out and a day with nothing falling from the sky), the defiantly low-tech Little Truffle Pig returned to officially find the cache, sign the log and leave a green carved stone turtle.

 

Alas, 3 weeks before I can celebrate with guru (and recent Columbus media star) larryc43230. Can HE find it without his gizmo? We shall see as the saga continues. (Gloat!)

 

Diolch Yn Fawr (Thanks very much) for this very fun find.

 

NOTE: Next visitor please bring a new zip-lock bag for the log book -- the current one looks a bit chewed up.

 

[ Note from larryc43230: I'm introducing little truffle pig to geocaching on my approximately-monthly visits to the Pittsburgh area. She doesn't own a GPS unit, yet seems to be able to spot caches that I can't find with my unit! She's a little spooky that way. ]

 

Three weeks later, not to be out-done by a newb, I also found the cache without benefit of GPSr, but I knew what I was looking for:

 

Found it 03/21/2009 This was the culmination of a fun experiment. My favorite lady, little truffle pig, had found this cache without benefit of GPS unit (or even the knowledge there was a cache at this location) on March 1 while walking the park trails. When I visited her this weekend from Columbus, she challenged me to also find the cache without using my trusty GPS. My male ego got the better of me, and I accepted the challenge.

 

I knew there was a cache somewhere on the trail, and I had the description from the cache Web page, but that was all. We walked the trail, and I scanned the surroundings for possible locations. I was proud of myself; when we approached the cache site, my geosense kicked in and I spotted the tell-tale signs of a cache hide. This was the first time I've ever even tried to find a cache without my electronic sidekick; this was an eye-opening experience! TNLNSL; TFTH!

 

--Larry

[+JulesDunelm]

On the theme of miracle caches, tenous link I know, but it tickled me.

 

We were at a zoo yesterday, where I'd assume there are no caches, due to being private land. Anyway, the 5 yr old is clearly as hooked on our new hobby as I am: 'Mummy, do they have geocaches here? Cos ther's something over there in that bush...oh it's just an empty water bottle.' She's also pretty good at spotting GZ when out caching, too.

[+briansnat]

One cacher I know was hiking with friends and explaining geocaching. As they passed a hollow tree on the trail he pointed it out as one of types of spots geocaches are hidden. One of the kids ran over and peaked inside and there was a cache. This was years ago before there were caches every .1 mile.

 

I've found a few while looking for hiding places for my own caches. In one case I approached an overlook and saw a rock crevice that looked perfect. Hid my cache there and then decided to pick up some leaves and scatter them on top to conceal it better. Peaking under the leaves inches from my cache was the edge of a brand new Lock n Lock. The cache was placed a few days earlier and not yet submitted.

 

Another time I found an abandoned amphitheater in the woods. I thought it would be great place for a cache and was poking around under the stage for a place to hide an ammo box, and found an ammo box. It was the final of a multi that started several miles away.

Edited August 10, 2014 by briansnat

[+Ma & Pa]

Here is a log of ours yesterday

 

We drove to Sackville to get this cache. It wasnt in our GPS but we had the IPhone so we werent worried. However as we approached Sackville, we realized the Iphone was not cooperating and the App was not working.

 

We got off at the correct exit and PA found a place to park and try to figure out the phone problem. As he was busy with the phone and using some foul language, he heard MA mention something about Belladan. He nodded and kept playing with the phone which refused to make the caching app work.

 

MA then mentioned that we should go to lunch. PA asked if she wanted to wait and get the cache after lunch. MA mentioned that she had already signed the log and put the cache back. It seems that PA had parked next to the cache and that MA had gotten out of the car and signed the cache while PA had been playing with the phone. She said that Belladan was FTF.

 

TFTC. We didn't need a GPS or a Phone

 

http://coord.info/GC5AE3R

[+Beach_hut]

From our own experiences:

 

• Hid a cache one day, only to find out another cacher hid a cache in almost exactly the same place (theirs at the base of a tree, ours in the same tree) on the same day.
  
• Hid a cache, it was published, one of the early loggers mentioned there had been a cache here before, unbeknownst to us. We then received a log from a finder who had found the original cache, which had been presumed missing by the owner and eventually archived for non-maintenance. Only it was there and in perfect condition, undiscovered for about 3 years.
  
• Looking for places to find a cache, found someone else's unpublished cache (and didn't claim the FTF)
  
• Found a multi by chance about 300 feet from where we expected it to be, only because we by chance looked at somewhere that matched the very vague clue. (In all likelihood, our co-ords were wrong)
  
• Another cacher found one of our puzzles by chance, as he spotted the hiding place, and was just hiding one there himself, put his hand on our cache...
  

[+Ma & Pa]

This story happened in Nova Scotia in 2005, near the start of our caching carreer. We were in an area that we had never been and i was looking for a place to hide a puzzle cache. It was in a wooded area over an hour from home but we knew some Nova Scotia cachers who would take care of it for us.

 

Here is part of our long log

 

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

 

When the GPS showed the closest cache to be 13 kms away, I noticed a possible area to hide my puzzle cache. I parked the truck 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.

[+Explorerphenom]

I was working on a puzzle cache which was an hybrid of a multi/puzzle recently(2014). The CO had given coords for parking at WP1 and WP2. I had no clue how to find WP1 so I thought I would outsmart this puzzle and park at WP2 and look for a cache. This is where I found a cache - I signed it and then looked at the names on the log. They were all dated 2010. After doing some research I discovered I had found an archived cache. I still have to find the puzzle cache!

[+copperisblue]

I guess it was kinda a miracle that I started caching. I had some vague instinctual knowledge that there was some such thing as geocaching, and so when I found a box and it's contents scattered about the side of a trail, I knew what was going on. I put everything back together, cursed the local adolescents, put the cache back where it was obviously meant to be placed, covered it up, and went on with life. No real interest in the game at that point, just a data point.

 

When my son was more of an age to appreciate finding a treasure box in the woods, a local Squonk showed a cache to me while running a trail. We signed the log, and I brought my son back shortly there after and made a trade.

 

Some point later, I decided to start an account to find more fun hidden treasure boxes in the woods. So long as I'm highly selective, my son gets super excited. But if I let the quality of the caches we're looking for fall... It can be very hard to re-build any of that previous interest level.

 

So only place high quality caches, OK?

[+.Flo.]

I once solved (or at least thought I had solved) a puzzle cache. Searched for about 20 minutes until I gave up. I proceeded along the path, and about 1 kilometer from the calculated coordinates where I had searched in vain I was magically attracted by a hollow tree stump. I had never ever before randomly checked possible cache hiding places, but I just HAD to check out that one! Especially since there were a few other unsolved puzzles in the area. So I looked into the stump, removed a piece of tree bark and held a cache in my hands! Turned out it was actually the one I'd been looking for, I had mad some mistake!

[+Douce Us 5]

We were on vacation in Santa Fe, New Mexico (from Wisconsin) a few moths ago and on our way up to Taos we pulled off to look at a roadside historic site. I simply said to my wife "I'm assuming there's a GeoCache here somewhere". I stood back and looked for possible hiding spots and said "I bet it's right there". We were 10 feet from it. No GPS, no Cell Phone...... I refer to it as blind GeoCaching!

[+terratin]

Oh yes, two such occurrences!

I was collecting information for a multistation cache (can't remember if it was a chirp mystery or multi) and decided to make a small detour for the view. And there I suddenly found a bison hanging from a fence. Signed the log and took a photo of the log book as I had no idea which cache it was. Turned out it was a mystery I simply could not solve.

 

Another time, Mr. terratin found a great location for hiding a cache. Quick check: oh, there's on already here! It was a D5 of a friend. He found our solution very funny

[Andronicus]

Just this last Friday, I was walking in a park, back to the car from finding a virtual. I was actually on the phone with my wife, when I spotted what looked like a good hiding spot under some large sandstone rocks. I poked my head in, and there was a small fake rock (hide-a-key style).

[+Ckayda]

Last year I was out running on a bike trail through the woods outside of town. I was training for a marathon so I had to run a LONG way that day and there were no bathrooms on my route. I was suddenly stricken with "the urge" and wandered off into the woods to find a place to relieve myself. I dropped my drawers and sat on a tree that had fallen with my rear end hanging off the side of it. Took care of business. Then, as I was standing up, I looked into the hollow stump that the tree had left behind and, by golly, there was an ammo can.

 

It's funny because there's this sort of Pavlovian response....a certain feeling that I always get right at the moment when I find a cache and it didn't matter that I had a very different agenda going on that day. It was just like, "There it is!" and I was all ready to pull out my pen and log my find. I had to take a moment and reorient myself and remember that I really wasn't out geocaching and that I had run a long way and I still had far to go to get back home.

 

I did sign the log but the kicker was it turned out to be a challenge cache that required 10 letterbox finds so I didn't even get a smiley out of it (yet)!

[+Panther&Pine]

I found one in the Redwoods without any trouble. We stopped to look at a downed hollow log and I crawled through it, turned around and found a cache. It is also the only cache I've found pot in.

[+Sunmill]

We found one of these, we were bush wacking for a cache, I was just about ready to give up (3 of the 4 kids had already given up and were patiently waiting for me to concede defeat) when I saw the perfect spot for a cache. Oh wait, there's already one in there! It was a nice sized ammo can but quite confusing as there were three log books. At least our effort wasn't in vain.

[+DeepButi]

I found what was definitely a cache at the top of a +3000m peak. There was nothing published there, I was sure, so once at home I wrote to French forums (there was a French logbook) and one French reviewer told me it had distance issues. I was sure it hadn't, so I contacted the owner-to-be and after a lot of e-mail excahnges we discovered he had bad coordinates. Once corrected the cache was finally published ... and do you know what? I was not FTF! Someone found it also exactly as I did but didn't log it online because there was no on-line page and only discovered it some seven or eight months later!

[+me N u]

We've found a cache by accident twice.

 

The first was GC6PN5 a multi cache, we stopped for lunch and sheltered out of the wind, Mrs me N u thought this would be a good spot, looked in the hole she was next to and there was a cache container, we signed the log then went on to find the clues.

 

The second was GC2D65V a micro that we had deselected from the PQ for the walk, stopped for photos and noticed the container.