First Lonely Cache Challenge?

[Ranger Fox]

I recently came across a wiki article that cited the first Lonely Cache Challenge as being placed in Kansas in August 2011 (GC32RV2).  That's incorrect because that cache cited GC2NC0K, placed in April 2011.  That person's profile says they're from my general area, where I created one in August 2009 (GC1X3KG).  So, that got me thinking: what was the first Lonely Cache Challenge?  After all, we attribute the Fizzy (Well-Rounded Cacher) Challenge to Kealia's creating it in honor of FizzyMagic, so what of origins of this challenge?

 

Looking on the forum, I saw this post and this one from 2004, mentioning Quest Master's Lonely Cache Challenge (where the term was also "dust-offs", and I found the term "resuscitator cache").  He has an empty bookmark list, linked to from a 2007 post, but no challenge cache under that account.  The account Lep, mentioned in this post, doesn't have any caches on that account.  After that, the forum posts go past when I created my challenge cache, so by that time at least one existed.

 

So, forum, we know the term existed since at least 2004.  As the general community has far more time than I, please take my research and figure it out.  I'm curious and historians will thank you.

[+Isonzo Karst]

The oldest active  challenge I can find is from  Jul/01/2008 GC1DQ8R Minnesota Challenge: Lonely Caches Mystery Cache

I tried resuscitation as keyword, and came up blank.

 

I bet on there being older caches  now archived possibly some that aren't even Mystery type, from back when ALR could be attached to a cache of any type. 

Utah had a  community chasing lonely, using a point system  posted on the state site,  real early on.

Florida had an informal lonely hunt   hosted on one of the 2 active state sites, as early as 2003.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Isonzo Karst

[+The Leprechauns]

On 10/28/2004 at 10:40 AM, The Leprechauns said:

This variation on the game is already played on a regional level in several areas. For example, in Montana there is Skydiver's point system, which "rewards" finders of caches that have gone longer between finds with more points in the standings for scoring a find. A bit less structured are the "lonely cache challenges" that have sprung up in a number of areas around Western Pennsylvania, where I believe the activity originated under Quest Master's sponsorship. The three caches that have gone the longest since being found are published in the local forum. Then, it's a mad dash to find that lonely cache -- almost like an FTF race. The "reward" is nothing more than getting your name on a certificate/honor roll. After much congratulations and storytelling, the found cache is taken off the list and replaced with the next oldest.

 

With slight variations, the same game is played by the geocaching groups in Northwest PA, Central PA and Central Ohio (there may be others that I'm forgetting). One benefit is that the game has a way of cleaning up caches that everyone had been avoiding because they might be missing, trashed, etc. Another benefit is that the most challenging caches -- which tend to get neglected in favor of park and grabs -- will see more action when they hit the lonely cache list.

 

Saw the post and clicked on the links, including the link to the post I just quoted.  Thanks for the trip down memory lane.  The Western PA "Lonely Cache Challenge" began in 2003 on a Yahoo group.  It never formalized into a challenge cache.   

 

The coolest thing about my post from 2004 was being reminded that, even back then, people were complaining about how park and grab caches got found more often than caches requiring a hike away from the pavement.

[+CCFwasG]

There are sure a lot of terms for caches not found in a long time. I need to do my full stats but just logged this one: https://coord.info/GC2FMJ5 which uses the term "resurrection". I have seen "resuscitation" (in the UK widely used, they call it a "re-suss"!) as well as lonely and others I can't remember. Dust-off I haven't heard! 

[+Gill & Tony]

Given the history, it's a shame that lonely cache challenges are no longer allowed

[+Isonzo Karst]

2 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

Given the history, it's a shame that lonely cache challenges are no longer allowed

Interesting, I'd say, given the history, it's clear that chasing lonely caches was in full swing well before the challenge cache type, and continues just fine without it.

[+ChriBli]

3 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

Given the history, it's a shame that lonely cache challenges are no longer allowed

I was not aware they weren't. How is that? I know anything that can't be made a checker for is disallowed, but shouldn't that be doable? Of course nothing can stop you from hunting lonely caches anyway, and I will keep doing so even though there are no challenges associated with it around. There were two in my area, and I have logged those years ago.

[+Isonzo Karst]

29 minutes ago, ChriBli said:

I was not aware they weren't. How is that?

Competition rather than achievement. Examples: challenges based on "First to Finds" or lonely caches are competitions.

Challenge cache rule #14. LINKY

[+JL_HSTRE]

17 hours ago, CCFwasG said:

There are sure a lot of terms for caches not found in a long time. I need to do my full stats but just logged this one: https://coord.info/GC2FMJ5 which uses the term "resurrection". I have seen "resuscitation" (in the UK widely used, they call it a "re-suss"!) as well as lonely and others I can't remember. Dust-off I haven't heard! 

 

Dust-off is a confusing term for me. I understand the intent of getting the proverbial dust off a geocache, like a book that nobody read for awhile. However, a dust-off is also a military term for a casualty evacuation, which would equate to removing a damaged cache container for maintenance.

[+barefootjeff]

58 minutes ago, Isonzo Karst said:

Competition rather than achievement. Examples: challenges based on "First to Finds" or lonely caches are competitions.

Challenge cache rule #14. LINKY

 

I realise that HQ have ruled that lonely cache challenges are competitions but I'm not sure I quite buy that argument. The old pre-moratorium ones I've seen allowed multiple cachers to claim the unfound days if they all found the cache on the same day, and in any case if one cache ceases to be lonely because someone found it, the chances are another one within the catchment will soon become sufficiently lonely to replace it. Right now, 14 of my caches have been unfound for over six months and, of those, 7 were last found over a year ago. A year back those numbers were similar, except it was a different bunch of caches making them up, and much the same the year before that. Unless you get a flurry activity from, say, a nearby mega, the number of lonely caches in an area doesn't change much over time, it's just the caches making up that set that do.

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by barefootjeff

[+JL_HSTRE]

The philosophy behind the present challenge cache guidelines is that Finds by other geocachers do not affect your eligibility, and that the challenge doesn't incentivize not finding caches. 

 

As much as I love Lonely Caches and challenges for them (I even maintain annual Florida lonely lists), prohibiting lonely challenges is consistent with that philosophy. If I log a cache today but someone else logs it yesterday what I thought was a qualifying find actually isn't. Additionally, I might wait to find a cache because doing so would make it qualify when finding it today would not. 

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by JL_HSTRE

[Ranger Fox]

So, for now, we've concluded the Minnesota one is likely the first time this has been seen as a challenge cache.  The certainty isn't too high, but it's what we have.

 

Since I moderate and don't review, I was unaware these challenges were not allowed anymore.  I'd better make sure I take good care of mine, then, since another one can't be created.  And I can understand how this might turn into a competition.  Being at the negative end of a rather nasty area competition for many years, I still don't like being dragged into something.

 

I also guess that means one of my mystery caches would no longer be allowed.  I placed one of three locks on an ammo can, with the other two located within.  The clues one must gather differ based on which lock is on the final at the time.  The whole point was an experiment to see if I could come up with a way where others' progress could affect those who came after.  Fortunately, I hadn't heard of anything negative resulting from it.

 

Well, if anyone hears or knows of a cache older than the Minnesota one, do be sure to add it here.  I think it's fascinating to trace and document the origins of things in this activity.  Even almost twenty years after the concept was first created, we can't quite point definitively to its origin.  Imagine the trouble that will be faced by those in the future, perhaps those putting together as much history as remains for a fifty year anniversary.

[+barefootjeff]

31 minutes ago, Ranger Fox said:

I also guess that means one of my mystery caches would no longer be allowed.

 

As far as I know, the challenge cache rules only apply to challenge caches. Mystery caches have a lot more latitude to be devious.