When you can't find your own cache.

[+diamonddolljeanette]

So I tried to check on one of my caches and I thought it got muggled because it wasn't where I hid it. Well someone found it just fine so now I am thinking someone rehid it someplace else. Anyone encounter this?

[+-CJ-]

It happened to me about 2 weeks ago. Two or three cachers reported that one of my traditional micro caches was missing. It happened that I passed by the place very soon after these logs so I checked the cache and yes - there was no container. So, I disabled the listing and decided to come back with a repairing kit. Unexpectedly, two days after that another cacher logged this hide saying that he successfully found the container and no maintenance was necessary. I checked the cache for the second time and finally found the container. It was moved by previous finders to a slightly different location, further, deeper, one couldn't see it, it's hiding place could be discovered only with fingers and luck.

[+niraD]

Anyone encounter this?

Oh yeah. More than once I've had to tell cache owners where I found their caches, because the caches had migrated from their original location, and the owners couldn't find them.

[+dprovan]

Quite common, especially when the cache location is non-specific. Someone once told me about a cache he hid in a large bush that he found 180° around on the other side from where he hid it. Apparently over time it had migrated as each cacher took it, signed the log, and accidentally placed it a branch or two to the left of where they found it.

 

I've had trouble a couple times when the cache was right where I remembered putting it, but it'd been covered by more debris than I expected.

 

Then there's the puzzle cache I had where my coordinates were originally about 30' off, and the area changed quite a bit between visits. It took me a few trips to reconstruct where I'd hidden it so I could confirm that it really was missing.

[+T.D.M.22]

A few times. One I ended up moving and went I went back I couldn't reme,be where wit was. Under a rock is a good place, but when they add more rocks it's a bit of a hide.

 

Recently I was with a other cacher who went to fond one of my caches that tuned out not to be there. Yet there was what was obviously a cache container, camo'd with a logbook. Yet it said it was not the cache. I really don't know what happened there.

[Pup Patrol]

So I tried to check on one of my caches and I thought it got muggled because it wasn't where I hid it. Well someone found it just fine so now I am thinking someone rehid it someplace else. Anyone encounter this?

 

Yes, almost had to post a dnf on our cache. Apparently the last finder found it on the ground, out in the open. So they re-hid it.

 

When we went to check on it, we couldn't find it for quite a while, even with a description from the previous finder. Finally we started looking in a completely different area and were able to find it.

 

The area has posed some problems in the past. We've used 3 different gps's over the years to try and nail down the final coordinates numerous times. But there's something weird about the location because every time has been impossible to get the gps to settle down. Even down the road a bit has been the same experience when we tried finding someone else's cache.

 

B.

[+cerberus1]

When we had a few 1.5/1.5 or less simple caches, accessed by the free Intro app, we'd often find 'em moved far enough they weren't anywhere near as placed.

- If there at all...

For quite a while, some were moving the caches to where their phone said it should be, as if their phone was the most accurate gizmo on Earth.

Lost a lotta ammo cans when new folks thought part of the "game" was to grab, and rehide the container too.

 

Once we gave up most of the simple hides, and concentrated more on higher terrain, many of those issues went away.

[+hzoi]

Sometimes subsequent finders will move a cache to someplace other than where you hid it. Or sometimes muggles. Or sometimes the wind, or squirrels. It happens.

[+jellis]

That happens many times. I have one that migrates a few feet everytime someone finds it. Posting a note on the cache page doesn't help if they don't read it.

[+niraD]

One approach that I've seen is for the CO to include a photo or two INSIDE THE CACHE that show exactly how the cache is supposed to be re-hidden. I don't know how effective this is in practice though. It might help, but you know what they say about someone making a better idiot...

[+narcissa]

One approach that I've seen is for the CO to include a photo or two INSIDE THE CACHE that show exactly how the cache is supposed to be re-hidden. I don't know how effective this is in practice though. It might help, but you know what they say about someone making a better idiot...

 

I like this idea. It might not be effective for every finder, but maybe enough would notice that it would prevent the cache from migrating too much over time because people would be intermittently correcting it.

[+Team Red Oak]

Twice while doing maintenance we couldn't find our own cache and replaced the container to have new finders tell us there are 2 containers at the site! We are the ones who put them both there. One of the containers was a red bison tube that the color had come off from being outside. I was looking for a red bison and just couldn't find it, the other was a container wrapped in cammo tape that we just didn't see. Oh well.

[+TriciaG]

I have a cache I've not been able to find two or three times when doing maintenance. I haven't replaced the container or disabled the cache; I've just waited, and the next cacher finds it just fine. (~100 ml Lock & Lock. It doesn't migrate, because it's the only shrub in the immediate vicinity. It shouldn't be that hard to find!)

[+Pork King]

I have a "rock cache"... a bison drilled into a piece of riprap that is then placed along a shore of riprap about 75' wide and hundreds of feet long. The coords are pretty accurate. but every time I have been out with a cacher, after much much searching, they always find it before I do...

[+barefootjeff]

One of mine is a fake rock that's supposed to be hiding in plain sight, but a few over-zealous finders have carefully rehidden it behind other rocks and I've come close to writing it off when doing routine checks before finally spotting it. Funny, because other ones that are supposed to be hidden are often left out in the open.