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What is the longest you have taken to finish a multicache, or other cache?


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I was looking at a cache I had started in 2016 and only finished it this year, so it took me about five years to complete GC63GEV.

It took so long because of the distance to travel, and the WPs didn't always follow the route I was driving. I needed four trips to complete it.

 

What are others experience of caches that took you a long time to get around to completing, and why did it take so long?

 

Some photographs on the final drive and then walk to GZ. The last is the view from GZ.

Namadgi National Park 1.jpg

Namadgi National Park 3.jpg

Namadgi National Park 6 View from GZ.jpg

Edited by Goldenwattle
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5 years 7 months to compete GC1D17R, we started in February 2013 and finally got round to completing it in Sep 2018 - it is only about 11 miles long and the final location is less than 4 miles from home, we picked up the clues during a series of shorter circular walks over the years.

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4 and half years.  A series of 3 boat Multis to a bonus. Got the 3 Multis and bonus coords, but the tide was out by the time we got near.  Bottomless muck, no paddle, no wade.  Took a while to get back.  I was last to find on that bonus, the Multis went down.  Old image from first digital camera ;-) salt coast paddling.

salt coast.jpg

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3-4 years to find Phone Call to a Hike (PBM#131) GC726DH 

 

This was a 3 stage multi probably got the first two stages done sometime between 2017-2018 they were at local phone booths. I had already hiked that area in the past as it was less than a half mile from GC16. Moved out of town for a couple of years. Then due to Covid moved back as I could work remotely anywhere. Was going to tackle it at the end of last summer but forest fires closed the whole region. Finally they reopened and I decided on that day this was going to be the goal, I wanted to see how the area held up in the fires, and as luck would have it came within a mile of the cache as well as GC16. A lot of downed trees on the trail, scorched earth and a lot of the surviving landowners are all clear cutting their land to avoid losses in the years to come. 

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There's a multi on Lord Howe Island (GC5KKQ8) that I made a start on during my first trip to the island in 2016, visiting all but one of the virtual waypoints. It was a cache I wasn't too fussed about at the time because, from reading the previous logs, I'd thought the final was going to be somewhere up on Mt Gower in a place I'd have no hope of reaching. When I got back home, I put together a partial set of coordinates from the answers I had and, while I couldn't pin it down exactly, the area it was in didn't look too bad after all. Yes, it was still going to be a bit of a climb, as its T4 rating suggested, but after studying numerous online photos I'd found of the area, I decided it was at least worth another shot.

 

So a year later I returned to the island, as there were a few other caches there I hadn't had time to do on my first visit anyway, and at the earliest opportunity found the final virtual waypoint and added the missing digit to my coordinates. Yes, it was where I thought it was likely to be and, with the photos I'd seen suggesting a low tide visit was probably a good idea, timed my bike ride around there and, after a lot of deliberation, found a way up I was comfortable with and made the find.

 

b5360d42-1c16-44a8-b662-fea49f5cab9e_l.jpg

 

There have been a few other multi-stage caches that have taken me several trips spread months apart to complete. One was GC6T5PZ which took me three trips spread over two months to visit its three waypoints and final, but the view from GZ was certainly worth the wait.

 

ViewFromGZComposite.jpg.cb8f03d5093c808ac377d6e9b4206176.jpg

 

Then there was the 11-stage Earthcache GC8K5D1 that I first attempted in March 2020 but was unable to reach some of the waypoints because of huge seas, then days later we went into COVID lockdown and it wasn't until June that I was able to get back there to complete it.

 

c937d407-05a8-4e65-9730-9665c4c1c5cd_l.jpg

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I looked through my multicache finds, but the longest I ever took to find one was several visits over two months - because a stage went missing, and I waited for the owner to replace it.

 

But do Challenge Caches count?  Because then I've got some stories.  For example, I "officially" dedicated a goal of completing my Jasmer Grid in early 2009.  It took years of planning vacations around finding old caches all over the USA, ending with a boat ride to Michigan's "Power Island" cache in July 2015.  Since then, I've been working on a Double Jasmer.  I am up to 21 finds on caches hidden in the Year 2000, but I'm still missing two months for my Double.

 

The longest I've ever taken to complete any challenge cache is the Ohio History Challenge, published in 2008.  Finding all the caches hidden in Ohio during the first year of geocaching in that State took a lot of travel - especially since I don't live in Ohio.  I finally found the last cache I needed to qualify in July 2020 - twelve years after I posted my first note to the cache page to say that I was working on the challenge.

 

Working on challenge caches is what keeps me engaged and wanting to find more geocaches.  I plan most of my vacations around finding caches that will help me with multiple challenge cache or other statistical goals - even when they take years or decades to accomplish.

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28 minutes ago, The Leprechauns said:

But do Challenge Caches count? 

 

I was wondering that myself. There was a challenge published in August 2016 which required 24 finds of D2/T4 caches. I was keen to do it as soon as I saw it but only had 4 qualifying finds to my name, so much of the following twelve months was dedicated to getting that up to the required 24. Included was a rail trip to the NSW south coast where there was a string of five 2/4 caches along several kilometres of rocky shoreline, but of those I DNFed four of them. I eventually got there, though, and was able to complete it in September 2017, with the cache's cliff-top location befitting the challenge.

 

DSC_0941.jpg.0f86b5e3fe684ea7fc41504686bc6ab2.jpg

 

A year earlier the same CO published the Scenic Adventure Challenge (GC5KEY1) which requires 40 T4+ finds each with the Scenic View, Cliffs/Falling Rocks and Difficult Climb attributes. So far I have 15 qualifying finds and from time to time its lure pushes me to try to extend that. The journey to its physical cache is likely to be at least as challenging as its qualifiers and I'll likely to be too old to get there by the time I qualify, but it's still a tantalising goal to have niggling away in the back of my mind.

Edited by barefootjeff
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This cache is only about a mile from where I grew up but it took me 13 years to finish! It has had3 owners and changed from 7 to6 stages and two of the stages have relocated over that time.  

Here my the log for  GCTX8Q.
It took me about 13 years to finally complete this multi. I had found stages 1 and 2 back in 2004 (the original cache). Found the former stages 3 and 4 back in 2005
Then searched for this stage 5 back in 2007. Then an 8 year gap (I lived in CA and only came back here  (NY)at Christmas). Moved back in 2014 and refound stages1, 2, and 3 last year. Found stage 4 Sunday, and then stage5 and the final today.

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The longest I've taken to complete a cache is 15 years, 1 month, 11 days.  I DNF'd it twice in 2004 and finally found the stage I needed in 2019.

 

On 5/3/2021 at 10:36 PM, The Leprechauns said:

The longest I've ever taken to complete any challenge cache is the Ohio History Challenge, published in 2008.

I published the first History Challenge (Washington) on 5-3-07, I didn't qualify for it until 2-20-13 (the rules were different back then) but still haven't "Found it" (since I own it :P).

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There are some challenge caches that have taken a LONG time to qualify for, like 'longest streak vs longest slump' or GC554KE BANANAS AT LARGE - 30 DAY CHALLANGE CACHE (30 counties in 30 days). But I get the vibe challenges are not what you are thinking of.
I have a few that took a lot of planning since they needed climbing gear and were up a mountain but the trip itself was only half a day.
I had a multi cache that took me 8 visits. Several stages were missing as well as originally being in superb hiding spots. Took about 2 weeks for time for the CO to replace. Great guy.

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About five years, and five visits. A very hard multi (D4T5) with multiple stages with one that was particularly hard.

 

But there are several mysteries that I have visited from time to time and never solved. Say, 8-9 years since first try. But they are not finished yet and probably never will be.

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