+Puppyman Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 I went out to do a Maint. check on my Moraine Trail # 1 and Left my gpsr at home. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=15179 This is my own cache and I know where I placed it!! I don't need no gps. When I arrived at the general cache area, I searched for 1/2 hr with no luck, with my tail between my legs I headed home for the gps. To top it off, after picking up the gps and coords at home and some short comments between me and my wife, she guessed what had happened. OK! Now its your turn! Be honest and lets hear your stories. Paul Link to comment
+DustyJacket Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 Yup. My first cache is burned into my brain. But I still take my GPS to find it because it is easy to go wrong in these woods. Link to comment
+Oat Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 I take mine just to make sure that the coords. are as close as I can get them. Link to comment
+El Diablo Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 Yep...been there! I had a cache that I archived and went I went to retrieve it...things weren't the same. The cache was hidden under a fallen tree. The only one at the time. Then a major ice storm and a 100 fallen trees. Back home to get the gps. El Diablo Link to comment
+HartClimbs Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 Makes me feel better knowing I'm not the only one who couldn't find my own cache without a GPS. First maint visit - I thought the cache might be gone. Second visit (with GPS), and voila...cache was right where I'd left it! Amazing how similar places can look in the woods. Link to comment
tlg Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 I don't even hit the head without my trusty GPSr, never mind going into the big bad outdoors Link to comment
+donbadabon Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 My first hide was placed when leaves were still green. Went during the leave changing, and had no problem finding it. But once the leaves fell, I had no idea where the thing was. Everything looked different. Had to go back to the car for the GPS. Link to comment
+The Leprechauns Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 Time for another so-called "veteran" to fess up. The first stage of my Elves in the Heights multicache can be difficult to find, either due to heavy tree cover in the summer, or leaf or snow cover in the other seasons. During a maintenance visit to place new instruction sheets in the first stage container, I was unable to find my own cache. There had been a storm since my last visit and the hillside was covered with fallen trees. The landscape was so different from my prior trips that I could not zero in on the area where the cache was hidden. I had to return on another day with my GPS. Even more embarrassing was my difficulties with the first stage of The Elves Tree a Raccoon, a multicache that requires the finder to hike several miles over some of the roughest terrain of any cache in the Pittsburgh area. Early finders reported difficulties in locating the first stage. On July 4th, I made a maintenance visit. After climbing up the third mega-hill from the third creek to the third ridgeline, I started asking "what kind of crazy sadist would hide such a cache?" When I got to the first stage coordinates, the one-pint container was nowhere in sight. I had hidden it in April, when there was very little undergrowth, in plain sight next to a very large and easily recognizable object. In July, with dense undergrowth, it took me 20 minutes to even find the large and easily recognizable object. I then took new coordinates and found them to be 180 feet off! That astounded me, considering I had hidden a dozen caches (one earlier the same day) with zero complaints about the accuracy of my coordinates. Link to comment
+Brian - Team A.I. Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 I have a cache several miles north of home that is a puzzle cache requiring lots of research before finding. The final cache location is in an area that provides many possibilities for hide locations. The first time I went to perform maintenance and check on contents, I walked right up to it. The second time after replacing missing steps, it took 15-20 minutes and I thought it was missing. Other than that, I don't have any other caches I would have difficulty finding, unless someone moved it a fair distance away. Link to comment
+briansnat Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 Yep, I've been skunked by my own cache a few times. As several people said, the area often looks a lot different at various of the year. Link to comment
+Ltljon Posted November 29, 2003 Share Posted November 29, 2003 Done it too. Still can't figure out for sure what happened but no one can find it or the exact location it was in. One even tried with a metal detector! Oh well, area's change & I'm also glad it didn't only happen to me. Link to comment
+Doc-Dean Posted November 29, 2003 Share Posted November 29, 2003 So far has not happened to me. But I always have my GPS with me anyway. Fortunately my 1 virtual is very easy to find! Link to comment
+CYBret Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 My missing cache is an offset. I'm still trying to decide if it's been stolen or if I just don't know how to work a compass. Bret Link to comment
PC Medic Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 Don't feel bad. One of mine is placed in some woods in a park near the ocean front. Nothing but flat ground covered with pine needles and lots of 70' tall 8" pines here and they all look alike. Between all the tree cover and no real landmarks, hell I have a hard time WITH my GPS finding it. But then that is why I picked that area when I placed it. Link to comment
+hedberg Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 Last night we hosted the first ever Nightcaching Event in Sweden (perhaps even in the world?) and just before it went dark, I went out for put out the last caches. I didn't bring the GPSr and suddenly I got lost. We went thru the area just a couple of days ago and checked every place. But it is really stupid to try to put out caches without GPSr if it is for a nightcaching event. Finally I found the places, but it took some time BTW, here is a link to the event: Fumble After Dark [Event Göteborg] Link to comment
+sbell111 Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 Been there. I have to use mine everytime I check on Caesar's Library. Slightly off-topic, thanks for placing such great caches. I've had the opportunity to go after some of them and had a ton-o-fun. Link to comment
+bigredmed Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 Yeah, been there with a cache on the Elkhorn river that got flooded and partially buried in silt. By the time I could get there and not go for a geo-mud bath, the willows, nettles, and marijuana had swarmed over the site. The GPS even failed me. My trusty log landmark had been flushed down the mighty Elkhorn leaving me no landmarks either. Funny how you can go to a place a half a dozen times and yet with even small changes, you can't really get to some specific part of it easily. Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 I know where I hid them. What I don't know is where the last finder hid it. I've been skunked on my own cache that way. Link to comment
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