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Must-find-the-cache-itis


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Starting a new thread because I think this is a separate issue from the cachers who were airlifted by SAR, it's something worth discussing, and I don't want to get in the middle of a Seneca/Jomarac5 debacle. (Incidentally, I live near these guys, have met one of them in person and hope to meet the other, respect them both individually for their intelligent insight, and am often annoyed when they let their rivalry get in the way of otherwise intelligent discussion.)

 

Anyway, in that other thread, Seneca brought up something he coined "must-find-the-cache-itis". I was intrigued by this idea, as I've experienced it myself. Never to a degree that would put me in danger, but close enough that I'm alert for the warning signs.

 

The premise is that when you're on a cache hunt, you sometimes get an almost overpowering determination to find the cache, no matter what. You may be completely blind to it, and just push on. Or you may get a niggling feeling that if you stopped to think about it, common sense would tell you to quit and try again another day, but because of that you force yourself to not stop and think about it, but rather push on with a fierce determination to find it.

 

For me it's usually a time thing. Maybe it's getting dark and I'm not prepared for night caching. Maybe I told my wife I'd be home by a certain time, and I'm running late, but I'm just sooo close - don't look at the watch!

 

My experiences have been relatively harmless, but I can easily see that in other circumstances the same feelings of determination to "complete the quest" could be very dangerous. Because of that, I'm alert to the warning signs, and (try to) force myself to do the rational thing and be objective at times like that.

 

So, anyone else have any thoughts or experiences like this?

 

SylvrStorm

 

*** Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry, and they laugh at you. ***

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I have that bad sometimes. I try to let my sense of adventure have it's way, but not at the expense of my developing sense of danger, as the two butt heads from time to time. After 2 or 3 close calls though, the various unpleasantries are still burned into the back of my brain and I find it easier to let go of the bone now, if I think there's the slightest chance of something nasty happening. <grin>.

 

'He who caches and runs away, lives to cache another day.'

 

My problems mostly had to do with lots and lots and lots of snow, on slopes, hiding water for you to fall through, -30C whiteouts with no reception etc.. thank god it's summer!<grin>.

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Mountaineers call this "summit fever". It sort of relates to the idea that Mallory and/or Irving might have made it to the top of Mt Everest before falling to thier deaths back in 1928. My point is that reaching the goal and dying on the return trip kind of defeats the purpose. Besides, you need to get back to your computer to log online!

 

Lou AKA

TxHiPowr

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The best way to deal with this is to make as many decisions as possible in the planning stage before starting on any lengthy hike (or off-road journey) for a cache. Decide beforehand the time at which you will turn back if you haven’t found the cache; or what you will do when your water supply runs below a particular level; or at what point deteriorating weather will stop you from proceeding. If those type of decisions are contemplated beforehand, then it is less likely that your determination to find the cache will influence your actions when the time comes. (I must admit though, I am much more conscientious in thinking in this manner when I am planning a flight that when I am planning a hike - I am going to try to change that (for hiking that is))

 

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.

geol4.JPG

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I tend to quit early enough so I can get back to the car before dark. Although I missed that once when I had to go back and forth between the cache and my car to find the cell phone I dropped.

 

Check the King of the Hill cache.

I finally gave up, but it took me 4 visits to do that.

 

However, my pack is fully laden for 2-3 days of survival, "just in case".

 

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case... icon_biggrin.gif

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My wife and I just went on our first without a GPS) cache hunt, and that drive to find it was strong. We had an hour to get the search done, because we had a school bus to meet, and the cache page indicated a steep but smooth .5 mile climb on one of our local hills. (4/4) The directions on the site seemed adequate enough to consider the search without the gps.

 

Reality hit home when we made our first of three rest stops on the way up this hill. It is much steeper than anticipated, the half mile is a direct line of sight, and the walk was actually closer to a mile of constant steep hill climbing on a fire road. The .5 mile WAS accurate in reference to the altitude increase, the goal was at 2500 feet, and the base much lower.

 

We arrived at three "hilltops" before the summit, (later email indicated the Summit was the goal).

 

and of course we did NOT find the cache.

 

My wife later indicated that she felt she had to drive on, even though we had short time to get back home, and she wasn't willing to quit until forced to almost run down the trail, and drive like a banshee to get home.

 

So although the "unexpected" occured, and we were prepared to walk away, the NEED to continue was still felt and almost made us delay too long.

 

Jeff Scism, IBSSG http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/

 

Time to hide

a treasure inside,

and what will we find?

 

A dream

a trinket,

stimulation for the mind?

 

Log: Neat stuff, Thanks!!

 

Log Two: Took serial number keychain, put stuffed dog back.

 

Log Three: Took log pages, No TP.

 

Log four: Took Ammo can, Left nothing.

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I can be very determined to find a cache.

 

I will relay a story.

 

Dagg and I were chasing after a TEAM KFWB GPS cache called PHANTOM OF THE FUTURE GEOCACHE, and we collectively spent 40 hours trying to get to it... we knew it was just off a road, but there were washouts etc...

 

Anyway, we were finally let through a gated area (first dumb move) and told we could exit the other side (except for there was a gate there too). We zeroed out our GPS, and no cache.

 

We departed the area at a preset time (we gave ourselves a limit), and then discovered we were trapped, and 30 kms walking distance from cell phone range.

 

So we got on our gear, and hoofed our way out. Luckliy only having to hike 20 kms before getting some locals to drive us into cellphone range. Man were we pooped.

 

(Needless to say, the cache description included some incorrect information, and we never did sign the logbook, or get the original $225.00 that was in it... but we were compensated...)

 

I guess I can understand the motivation then to search for a cache until you find it.

 

Now imagine that $5000.00 is on the line?

 

canadazuuk

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quote:

The best way to deal with this is to make as many decisions as possible in the planning stage before starting on any lengthy hike (or off-road journey) for a cache. Decide beforehand the time at which you will turn back if you haven’t found the cache; or what you will do when your water supply runs below a particular level; or at what point deteriorating weather will stop you from proceeding


 

I totally agree with this philosophy, the problem is it's just as hard to do as sitting down at a table at Vegas with a betting limit. It's darn near impossible to adhere to.

 

I too get the glazed-over eyes and stark determination to find that elusive cache.

If I have children with me I am more apt give up though.

 

OG

 

Prophetically Challenged (or is that Pathetically?)

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quote:
Originally posted by Og's outfit:

quote:

The best way to deal with this is to make as many decisions as possible in the planning stage before starting on any lengthy hike (or off-road journey) for a cache. Decide beforehand the time at which you will turn back if you haven’t found the cache; or what you will do when your water supply runs below a particular level; or at what point deteriorating weather will stop you from proceeding


 

I totally agree with this philosophy, the problem is it's just as hard to do as sitting down at a table at Vegas with a betting limit. It's darn near impossible to adhere to.

 

I too get the glazed-over eyes and stark determination to find that elusive cache.

If I have children with me I am more apt give up though.

 

OG

 

Prophetically Challenged (or is that Pathetically?)


I agree! I just can't quit looking for a cache!

 

Same thing for hiking...I'll be on a great trail that keeps going and going. I'll say to myself ok, just one more corner, but I keep saying that and have often pushed it to the limits. Sometimes though this approach has yield rewards of bagging a peak in addtion to a lake when you were just planning on the lake. I do, however, carry the TEN ESSENTIALS in my pack...extra food, clothes, water AND purifier, survival blankets, first aide, etc.

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I had it bad when I placed the Lost Ark cache (now archived). I had to haul this full sized ammo can up a mountain for 3 hours nonstop, and it was packed HEAVY with goodies. All I could think of with every step was: "I have to summit, I have to summit". Yea, I made the summit just as the sun went down and I drank my last drop of water. Had to spend the next two and a half hours going back down the mountain in the dark, no flashlight, water, or trail. At first I was desperate to get off the mountain RIGHT AWAY, so delirious I even thought: "Hey, I will just jump off this mountain, yea, that's what I will do, I am just gonna jump down". After I calmed down, it was really a nice moonlit adventure, and I learned to take my time and enjoy it. Quite the adventure, and that's what geocaching is all about.

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It's happened to me twice...

 

In May, my husband and I were invited to a wedding in Rhode Island. We had never been to the ceremony or reception site and decided to leave around 1:00 for the 3:00 wedding.

 

At 11:00 that morning, I was feeling restless. There is a cache 1/2 a mile down the road from me, so I said to my husband that I was kind of antsy and I wanted to go grab that cache. I told him, "Don't worry about it, I'll be half an hour and we'll have plenty of time."

 

I went out to the site of the Bittersweet 3D cache. Got my gear and started walking to the cache. My GPS couldn't hold a signal due to the fact that there were a lot of trees. Every time I looked, the thing was averaging, averaging. It would just finish and then start up again.

 

Oohkay, time to consult the printout. Printout? What printout? I had forgotten it at home. So I'm out in the woods, wandering, trying to find someplace for my GPS to get the signal. Nope, not interested in connecting with those satellites.

 

To make a long story short, I spent 45 minutes searching. I gave up, knowing I was well past my time limit. Time to get home. Of course, the trail markings were confusing and I hadn't waypointed my car. So I followed the yellow trail that I had followed to get in there, and it led me to the back of some housing project. Darn! Now I don't have any clue where I am.

 

Headed back into the woods to see if I could find the last spot I remembered knowing where I was. Turns out, for some reason, I had to hop on a short leg of the blue trail and then onto the yellow trail. I made it home at 12:30, tired, sweaty, dirty, disgusting. Barely had time to shower and make it into the car--good thing we left early, got slightly lost getting to the church.

 

Second time, I was visiting my dad. He was interested in going caching and we decided at 10:00am on a Saturday morning that we would do a local 2/2.5. His girlfriend wanted us to be at her house by 11:30 (she lives about 35 miles away) to go to a street fair and parade. No problem.

 

We get to the drop off site and start hiking. Across a river--we both fall in. We start up a gigantic mountain that the recent 6 months of snow and 2 months of rain have turned into a big hill of mud. My hiking sandals break. I tromp around for 40 minutes in broken sandals until I have to give up. My dad takes the GPS. He heads up the mountain. He's within 4 feet of the cache, but not knowing what he's doing or looking for, he can't find the cache itself. He refuses to give up. I yell to him that I'm going back to the car. Neither of us can understand each other. My shoes come off and I leave them in the mud. I see my dad coming down the hill and suddenly he bends over. His shoe has come off. While he extricates that one from the mud, his other shoe gets mired down. He trods out barefoot as well.

 

Lo and behold, we get home at 11:00am. We still have a 40 minute drive (if we're lucky) and we are both covered with mud and slime. We wound up showering off with the hose first, then inside for quick showers. My dad drives like a madman and we make it up to the girlfriend's 5 minutes before they closed the roads for the parade.

 

georgeaftercache.jpg

 

My dad, post cache...

 

Z--

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. --Galadriel, "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship Of the Ring"

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