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Accidental find of puzzle or multicache final GZ


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I'm guessing many have had this experience; I have several times, and recently a few days ago did so again.

I was in a local Nature Park with a friend looking for a new hiding place. I had just joked wouldn't it be fun to accidentally find the hiding place of a puzzle, multicache or archived cache? I wandered over to some promising looking logs to see if there was a suitable hide for our cache, but as I neared, I spotted what looked like the top of a large plug in a stump. Excitement rose. I checked it out. YES:antenna:, it hid a regular sized puzzle cache. You had to find a number of caches and get the clues to find the final; this cache. Many years ago I had found most, if not all of these caches, but being a beginner then didn't know I was meant to note clues. When later I realised I didn't have clues to the final, I had given up the idea of finding the final, because I didn't want to revisit the other spread out caches. I even imagined this might be archived. No, apparently not; this cache still exists. We both signed the log. It was great to finish this series off, although not how I expected to.

 

I also a few years ago found the final (out in bushland) of a similar series, where a clue would be gathered to find the final cache. I logged it and wrote in my log that I found the final first, and now must go and find the others.

 

What about you?

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I received a scathing letter when I was first to sign the log when the only way to get the coordinates was to message the CO. The CO was not happy to see my name on the log since they had accompanied the FTF to watch him sign the log first. I found it within minutes of starting my search. Boy did I get in trouble for that one.  Someone, not me, reported the cache to a reviewer since it violated several guidelines, and it was promptly archived. Wasn't me, though! 

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A good friend of mine once briefly mentioned that he had hidden a geocache in a local park (fairly large) and that he was trying to come up with some sort of creative puzzle or a creative challenge to accompany the hide. So, obviously, a I went to search for the cache with a friend, without it even being published. We weren't expecting to find it (again, large park) but to our surprise we stumbled across it after a two hour search. That was hilarious!

 

Unfortunately, it took him an additional three or four months to develop the puzzle... that was a loooooong time to wait. We started to get worried that it wasn't going to get published.

Edited by Hügh
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23 minutes ago, Hügh said:

I went to search

Several times I have looked for caches without doing the multi/puzzle, and at least twice was successful. I find that a fun game too. I have also been walking through an area and more than once have found a cache disturbed by an animal or something, out in the open and in full view. They were surprises too. My most recent of those was a puzzle cache, which nicely made up for the DNF I was returning from.

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There were some active puzzlers around here who would brute force puzzle finals when they thought the puzzle itself was going to be tedious. It was a way to make an otherwise boring cache more interesting. I never found one like that myself.

 

The closest I got was a puzzle cache where the intended solution method was to brute force by identifying an open spot that was close enough to the posted coordinates and matched the other information (terrain rating, attributes) in the cache description. I managed to identify an unplanned location just barely inside the park boundaries. When that location didn't pan out, I checked my alternative solution and found the cache there.

 

Early in my geocaching career, I was looking for good locations for my own cache, and spotted a hidden cache that didn't appear on any of my searches. I managed to identify a few names and dates in the log, and from that, I identified the cache as the final for a multi-cache that had been archived 2 years prior when the owner couldn't find the cache and assumed it had gone missing again. It turned out that the last finder had just hidden it "better" than he had found it, and the owner assumed it was missing when he didn't see it where it belonged. (I posted a Note to that one though, not a Find.)

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I always have my "cacher's eye" open while out walking even if I'm not caching, and if I see a potential hide I'll go check it out, and I've probably found 4 or 5 like that, and a few found before publication.

 

I was once walking down a country road and spotted a plastic coffee jar  covered in tape lying in the road, which is a container type frequently used by a local puzzle hider, I checked it out and yes it was a cache. He always labels his log book, so I was able to look up the listing and worked out from the hint that it had fallen from a bush up a bank about 10m from  the road, so could put it back, and reported it to the CO.

 

I have 2 daughters who ride horses and they've come home a couple of times and said "we saw what looks like a cache along the road at xxxx", gone and checked them out and they were puzzles, which I re-hid porperly.

 

My favourite was when a newbie placed a trad near me, it was DNFd by the local puzzle hider who reported the co-ords were in a private field and it was disabled immediately. I was able to work out where the trad was hidden (about half a mile from the co-ords!) and got FTF on it. I sent the newbie CO the correct co-ords, but when he re-enabled it about 2 weeks later he had moved it; the only explanation I could think of was that the original hide was too close to another cache, so I worked out an area of about 40m along a path to check and went and found another puzzle by the local puzzle hider who'd DNFd the trad. That was two quite a satisfying finds there!  

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I don't recall finding the final of staged or puzzle cache.  I have found recently placed as yet unpublished caches a couple of times, as well as long ago placed and never published caches.

 

I've had others find the penultimate stages of my Multis a couple of times. Going on to the final.  Fine by me.  I'd be okay with just stumble over the final.  https://coord.info/GLEDCH52

 

When a new Trad was published I thought it might lead to direct find of a one of my Multi finals.  A straight line bushwhack from to it from the older Trad went by my conspicuous final. ( Eagles nested in the area, and it was all closed so they wouldn't be disturbed.)

Edited by Isonzo Karst
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Been there, done that. Got a D5 mystery. Also once got a FTF on a traditional I think at a mega event, before it was actually published. I was walking to an older, solved puzzle and noticed some trampled down greenery into the woods. Went to investigate, found the cache 10m from the path :P

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I've stumbled upon a couple multi finals, a couple final puzzles, a couple of never published caches (too close to another cache but never picked up), and a couple of archived caches.  Although I didn't really "stumble" on two that I was trying to be FTF on, neither one was at the published coordinates.  The new cachers had placed their caches too close to other caches in the area and found coordinates that worked but only updated the coordinates and didn't move the container.  I guess they thought the cache would magically move itself.  One ended up being about 350 feet away while the other one I managed to find almost a 1/4 mile away.  They had posted some pictures of the area around GZ and I knew where that was.  That one only took me about 5 minutes to find once I got there.  It was less than 100 feet from the cache that prevented it from being published at the original location.

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15 minutes ago, Vooruit! said:

That's what you get when a CO leaves traces of placing caches. I for one have learnt my lesson in that regard. :P

 

LOL! That asks for the story of course.

Just checked: we're not in the same area, thus no chance of stalking potential hiding spots :P

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I was actually with the CO for my favourite find of an unsolved puzzle - it was actually a FTF.  He'd had three new puzzles published on the same day.  That evening another friend and I went to an event with the CO (all travelling together).  Over the course of the evening, the two of us managed to solve one of his new puzzles, and we decided to look for it up on the way home.

 

The cache was on a quiet country road - we stopped and found it easily enough.  We didn't know for sure that the other new caches were nearby, but it seemed a reasonable assumption.  A short way down the road, we spotted a likely looking spot by a gate, jumped out of the car and found #2.  Another quarter mile down the road, we stopped again to check out a telegraph pole.  Our luck ran out - much to the relief of the CO sitting quietly in the car.  Turns out #3 had been at the base of the next telegraph pole.  Not sure the CO has forgiven us!

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I've told these before, so I'll sum up.

 

There were a bunch of caches hidden for Germany's first mega event in 2007.  We found a few but were more interested in hanging out at the event.  The next day, we came back for the Sunday morning CITO, and we found the final for a puzzle cache we hadn't solved.  The CITO crew we were with was happy to all sign the log as well.

 

After completing a 2008 multi cache around the ruins of a castle, I briefly explored the ruins and came upon a tree with some suspicious rocks at the base.  Too close to the multi's final to be an active geocache - but there was a container in good shape.  Apparently a 2003 multicache had been muggled a year ago, and was archived, and then it was replaced by the muggles.  The CO worked to get the archived multi going again.  Today, the 2003 reactivated multi is still going.  Its nearby replacement was archived a couple years after I found it. 

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While traveling thru New Hampshire a couple of years ago, we'd stopped to see a waterfall.  On the way back to the car I passed a very common hide site and jokingly said "If all is right with the world, there should be a cache right here" - and then reached in and pulled it out.  Then had to figure out what cache I'd just found (it wasn't in my higher Fav point DB).

 

I've also found an unpublished cache from a comment the CO made about a spot on the trail during a hike.  We found it on the way back out (the wife and I were lagging about an hour behind the main group).

 

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19 minutes ago, kimsu71 said:

Do you also sign the log when you find an unpublished cache?

I wouldn't log a Find unless I had signed the log.

 

19 minutes ago, kimsu71 said:

Would signing be reckoned as FTF when an unpublished cache precisely taken isn't a geocache yet.

:drama:

 

Some of us would consider that First to Find, because that person was the first to find the cache. After all, the sample cache note provided on the geocaching.com site does say, "You’ve just found a geocache—intentionally or not."

 

But there are others who think the FTF game has some unwritten rule that says FTF doesn't count until after the cache is published on the geocaching.com site. I think that might qualify as First to Find After Publication (FTFAP), but others don't see a distinction between FTF and FTFAP.

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Have stumbled across the final for a multi while looking for a bit of virtual waypoint information for another multi.  That was a surprise! 

Headed for another cache not realizing it was a night cache, and noted a firetack at the posted coordinates.  Looked around and darned if we didn't spot three firetacks together on a tree not far away, and sure enough, it was a two mile 'loop' cache and we'd spotted the triple markers for the final near the starting point.

 

We signed both and logged.  Figure it's 'caching karma', and helps to balance out many dozens of other caches that were muggled when we arrived, and puzzles that were archived just after we had solved them.  Once in a while, a finder deserves a break.  What the heck --- 2 out of 13000+?  I'll take it. 

 

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8 hours ago, Vooruit! said:

That's what you get when a CO leaves traces of placing caches. I for one have learnt my lesson in that regard. :P

That's why when a Mega event came close to where I live, I temporarily removed one of my caches, as with masses of people walking across the ivy covered ground, they would leave a trail that would last months, if not years. I noted on the cache's page that the cache had been removed, so no-one would attempt to find it. Only 'Disable' wouldn't have been good enough.

I had an eleven stage multi not far away, but I left that, as I figured not many would bother to find that, and I was correct. Even a cache of mine fairly close to the mega didn't get as many visitors as I had expected. I guessed, because it was up a slight hill and there was only one other cache up there with it. Most people went out to the country to do power trails, where they could make lots of finds.

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8 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

I was actually with the CO for my favourite find of an unsolved puzzle - it was actually a FTF.  He'd had three new puzzles published on the same day.  That evening another friend and I went to an event with the CO (all travelling together).  Over the course of the evening, the two of us managed to solve one of his new puzzles, and we decided to look for it up on the way home.

 

The cache was on a quiet country road - we stopped and found it easily enough.  We didn't know for sure that the other new caches were nearby, but it seemed a reasonable assumption.  A short way down the road, we spotted a likely looking spot by a gate, jumped out of the car and found #2.  Another quarter mile down the road, we stopped again to check out a telegraph pole.  Our luck ran out - much to the relief of the CO sitting quietly in the car.  Turns out #3 had been at the base of the next telegraph pole.  Not sure the CO has forgiven us!

I have found two or three numbered puzzle caches in a series in the same way. These were on walking trails, and after I had found the previous cache, I decided to search along the trail in likely places for the ones I hadn't been able to solve. Bingo! Found them.

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5 hours ago, The Jester said:

On the way back to the car I passed a very common hide site and jokingly said "If all is right with the world, there should be a cache right here" - and then reached in and pulled it out.

:antenna: Similar to my experience. I reached into a hollow on a metal sculpture, saying, "This would make a good hide," felt something, and pulled out a mintie tin that had been stuck in there with a magnet. "Just like this," I said, laughing.It was an archived cache, but still in good condition. We both signed it. A year or so later, a meet-up was held nearby and I mentioned the archived cache. It was well signed and logged that day. If the CO who archived the puzzle cache, didn't want anyone to find it, they should have removed their litter. I guess it would still be being signed, as now many people know the location, and no doubt are mentioning it to other geocachers.

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2 hours ago, niraD said:

:drama:

 

Some of us would consider that First to Find, because that person was the first to find the cache. After all, the sample cache note provided on the geocaching.com site does say, "You’ve just found a geocache—intentionally or not."

 

But there are others who think the FTF game has some unwritten rule that says FTF doesn't count until after the cache is published on the geocaching.com site. I think that might qualify as First to Find After Publication (FTFAP), but others don't see a distinction between FTF and FTFAP.

If I found a cache without any special knowledge from the CO before it was published, I'd consider that an FTF.

 

If someone else finds the cache before it was published, and I was the first to find it after it was published, I'd consider my find an FTF, too.

 

That's the beauty of FTF: multiple people can claim them for the same cache. Try and stop us!

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