+CacheCreatures Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 Alright, this one goes down in the history books. My wife and I are on vacation and out on the hunt for a few caches. A particular one has us stumped for a few minutes until she says..."nah, it can't be behind there?" We look and sure enough, theres the micro, stuck to the back of a sign, hanging over a 30 foot drop! It seems perfectly reachable so I reach over, and nudge it just a bit. "ahh I've got it... NOOOO..." *tonk tink tink slllllsh*. Dead silence. We look down, and there it was. Utterly and completely out of reach. At first we laughed; this can't be for real right? Did we just destroy someone's lovingly placed cache? Then we cried; we just destroyed someone's lovingly placed cache. Then we cursed in anger; why would someone lovingly place a cache out there anyway?!? So heres the situation: the micro is down there, we're up here. During the 10 minutes we've been there, we've already seen a handful of muggles, a security guard and a police officer. Up here is a very clear sign warning of a huge fine and serious jail time if we try to get down there. Do you risk the fine and jail time for a mint tin? Do you leave it and yell at the placer for the clearly ridiculous placement (hmm guess the other 10 finders were just lucky) or do you leave it and grovel endlessly with the placer explaining how freakish of an accident it was... An hour, a visit to the local hobby store, some string, a remote controlled car, a tin buckle, some skillful (remote control) driving, some very nice string manipulating and a bit of luck later, we had our solution. Dropping the car down, driving it to the cache, using its magnetism to clamp to the buckle and some very steady pulling up retrieved the cache! We musta looked like couple of deranged fishermen, but dammit, we had our white whale!! You should have seen the looks on the faces of the muggles as they tried to figure out why two grown adults were playing with a remote control car on a string down in a dry waterway. So what situations have you gotten into while retrieving a cache? How did you get out of them? In our case, the $70 spent was nothing compared to our dignity! Imagine the shame had we had to leave it there... CacheCreatures are spreading... They can hide, but they can't run! Quote Link to comment
+Doc-Dean Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 If only you had brought along some duct tape!!! -------------------------------------------- Free your mind and the rest will follow Quote Link to comment
+Touchstone Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 We have a two similar caches at the end of some wharfs. The descriptions say something to the affect, "be careful in retrieving and replacing the cache; if you drop it there is no chance of getting it back". I was lucky, but I wondered at the time what lucky individual is going to loose that one. I don't think a remote control car is going to help them. Maybe a remote control submersible Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. The rest go geocaching. Quote Link to comment
+TeamJiffy Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 What a wonderful story! Too bad you didn't purchase a disposable camera and upload some photos of this activity! -Jif Quote Link to comment
+iBrew Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 Why not just the string on a stick and a very strong magnet? You did say the cache dropped straight down didn't you. Then again, if I wanted a good excuse to tell my wife why I just HAD to buy a RC car, I couldn't think of a better one than this. Peace! iBrew Click here to see my Completely Useless Webpage quote:Oh, Great Spirit, let us greet the dawn of a new day when all men live as brothers and peace reigns everywhere! "Indian Prayer" Quote Link to comment
+pnew Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 quote:Originally posted by iBrew:Why not just the string on a stick and a very strong magnet? You did say the cache dropped straight down didn't you. Then again, if I wanted a good excuse to tell my wife why I just HAD to buy a RC car, I couldn't think of a better one than this. Peace! _iBrew_ Because then they would have been able to share this crazy story that made me go "...WOAH...". Quote Link to comment
+CacheCreatures Posted November 2, 2003 Author Share Posted November 2, 2003 You think we'd let this debacle go unrecorded? Pics were definitely taken. We'll post em when we get home. At the moment we have no way of getting them off the digital camera. Duct tape was discounted due to our distance from the cache (30 feet down, 20 feet out), and angle away from it. After analyzing the geometry required to accomplish the objective, it became clear that the angle of incident was such that didn't allow for enough force at the contact area without a direct hit; very unlikely given our position. A stick with a magnet was considered, but was quickly discounted for essentially the same reason as the duct tape. Besides the RC car was WAAAAAY cooler. CacheCreatures are spreading... They can hide, but they can't run! Quote Link to comment
+Bloencustoms Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 On a recent hunt, I was caching with a friend. He was replacing the container, when the lid popped off, and all of the contents came out. The cache had been perched in a hole in the side of a hollow tree about 10 feet up from the ground. All of the contents spilled down inside of the hollow tree. We were frantic for a minute, untill we realized there was another opening at the base of the tree. After tossing a few sticks down inside the cavity, we were able to dislodge the contents, and retrieve them at the hole in the bottom. After we logged our adventure, the hider added some support to the inside of the tree, and all was well. [This message was edited by Bloencustoms on March 32, 1999 at 25:60 PM] Quote Link to comment
+9Key Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 Why not buy some mints, a couple of magnets, and note pad? Replace the cache and no one's the wiser. If you feel guilty about not saying anything, email the cache owner and tell him you've created a *bonus* cache with a high terrain rating. ------- ~ Texas Geocaching ~ Geocaching Icons - The Selector ~ Quote Link to comment
+JMBella Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 This just happened to me this weekend. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Because now I am Lost. Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 It's a good story and a worthy find. If they had a geocaching award for service above and beyond the call of duty you would have just earned it. Quote Link to comment
+sept1c_tank Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 quote: You should have seen the looks on the faces of the muggles as they tried to figure out why two grown adults were playing with a remote control car on a string down in a dry waterway. You should have seen the look on my face when I read your post! ==============="If it feels good...do it"================ **(the other 9 out of 10 voices in my head say: "Don't do it.")** . Quote Link to comment
+st_richardson Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by CacheCreatures:Alright, this one goes down in the history books.... ...An hour, a visit to the local hobby store, some string, a remote controlled car, a tin buckle, some skillful (remote control) driving, some very nice string manipulating and a bit of luck later, we had our solution. Dropping the car down, driving it to the cache, using its magnetism to clamp to the buckle and some very steady pulling up retrieved the cache! We musta looked like couple of deranged fishermen, but dammit, we had our white whale!!... quote:Originally posted by Renegade Knight:It's a good story and a worthy find. If they had a geocaching award for service above and beyond the call of duty you would have just earned it. If it had been me, the owner would of gotten a "Not found post with the message sorry your ill placed cache fell." You surely earned that find! Quote Link to comment
+st_richardson Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Be sure and post a link to the cache pictures here when you upload them. Quote Link to comment
+Team Lyons Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 You shoulda left your RC car rig near by for the next cacher to fish the micro off the cliff Quote Link to comment
+stu_and_sarah Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Fantastic story! We have one cache hidden very close to a canal. I don't think anyone who's found it has placed it back where it came from - they all think it will slip into the water, and put it further away. Of course, we place it back in its rightful place each time we do a mainenance trip! We haven't actually checked if it floats. Maybe we should... Quote Link to comment
+Thomas & Dingo Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Great story, maybe the cache should be moved down there and the difficulty rating raised. would make it a unusual cache. Each cacher would have to figure out how to get it on their own, without climbing down. "We never seek things for themselves - what we seek is the very seeking of things." Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) Quote Link to comment
+Criminal Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 What would I have done? I would have come back at night and retrieved it. If anyone of authority noticed me, I would show them my GPSr and the cache sheet, tell them I dropped my expensive GPS V, and show them the "retrieved" receiver. But I wouldn't get caught. I have better hings to do with 70 bucks. http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/ Quote Link to comment
+OzGuff Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 After laughing my self silly reading CacheCreatures post I set off to get a FTF on a reasonably close cache. The AutoRoute software I was using said that it should take me 90 minutes to get to the parking coordinates, but that I could get to within 0.5 miles of the cache and then bushwhack up the mountain-side. Since I had things to do at work today I chose the bushwhacking option. The last "road" I was supposed to take to get within 0.5 miles was not much of a road; while trying to ford a small creek my SUV's front wheels wound up a little lower than my back wheels, placing the undercarriage of the vehicle squarely in contact with the ground. 4WD not working; tires spinning. Hmmmm... maybe I should have taken the 90 minute drive... After calling my assistant to have her call a tow-truck (no winch on my SUV) I waited 30 minutes for help (a reasonable $55--much cheaper than a remote-controlled car) and arrived at work by 11am. (Bankers' hours be damned; I work geocacher hours!) At 12:40pm, after 100 minutes of strenuous work, I took a late lunch and drove off to find that dadgum cache! I arrived back at work at 3:20pm in time to work for another 100 minutes, and called it quits at 5pm. I love my job! Oops! FYI--the yellow sign seen in the photo points out that the "road" is closed to motorized vehicles. Quote Link to comment
+Tervas Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Well, OzGuff you are not the only one who got his car stuck on a caching trip... Quote Link to comment
+OzGuff Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 Is that supposed to make me feel better? Quote Link to comment
+Tervas Posted November 4, 2003 Share Posted November 4, 2003 quote:Originally posted by OzGuff:Is that supposed to make me feel better? Nope, it makes ME feel better since your vehicle seems to be in a worse place than mine PS. there is a new thread about car situations. Quote Link to comment
+CacheCreatures Posted November 6, 2003 Author Share Posted November 6, 2003 Alrighty here ya go. Just after catching the bugger: (aint digital zoom great?) Look! We done did caught us a biggun! Ahhh it still makes us laugh... CacheCreatures are spreading... They can hide, but they can't run! Quote Link to comment
+CacheCreatures Posted November 6, 2003 Author Share Posted November 6, 2003 double post Quote Link to comment
+Touchstone Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 That's classic! One definitely for the books. Good job guys, and just shows what ingenuity is required sometimes. To cache, or not to cache, that is the question. Quote Link to comment
+Mark 42 Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 I think I would have detached the sign from the post and thrown it down hoping to land it on top of the cache, followed by the hardware that attached the sign, and the post if I could work it loose and pull it up. Then I would have stuck a new altoids tin & logbook in the post hole. Then just logged TNLNSL. Quote Link to comment
+Mark 42 Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Forums are messed up today. Sorry 'bout the multipost (no pun intended). [This message was edited by Mark 42 on November 07, 2003 at 01:22 PM.] Quote Link to comment
+Mark 42 Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Duplicate Post. [This message was edited by Mark 42 on November 07, 2003 at 03:21 PM.] Quote Link to comment
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