Did You Leave Something Forgotten After Caching?

December 1, 2003

One day, while placing a multicache, I left my new PDA (only a week old) on a rock next to a church, after 5 minutes I noticed that the Palm wasn't with me so I went distressed to the place where the PDA was, miraculously it still was there.

And in a very hot hike cache where i went with a friend and my dog, my cell phone fell from my pocket near the cache. I noticed that the Cell phone wasn't with me while waiting for the train for come to home, i got my friend's cell phone for calling and locate my phone during all the trail . I found it too.

5k · December 2, 2003

While on a night hunt, I set my pack down on the trail when I was in the vicinity of the cache. I stumbled around in the shadows for about ten minutes before I found the cache. I set my GPS and camera on top of the cache and then walked the twenty or thirty feet back to the trail to grab my pack, always keeping an eye on the cache location. After I'd gotten my pack, I attempted to return to the cache, but I couldn't find it.

For ten more minutes, I hunted for the cache with my GPS and camera sitting on top of it. It was very frustrating, although I never felt like I wouldn't find them again.

Jamie

24.7k · December 2, 2003

For the first 500 caches no problems. Then the past 40 I've dropped the GPS off a truck at 35mph, and left it at two different caches where I had to go back and get it. I can only conclude that I'm supposed to get one of the new Garmin Color GPS's or these things would not be happening after a long run of no problems. Or I could be getting old, but that theory just doesn't sit well.

9.1k · December 2, 2003

About a half dozen caches into a long day of hunting, I passed a drug store with a very inviting vending machine near the entrance. It featured Mountain Dew, the official drink of power geocachers everywhere. I set my GPS V on top of the vending machine while I fumbled for change in my pocket and bought my cold caffeine fix. Fortunately a geocacher doesn't drive very far before realizing he is GPSless. It was still there ten minutes later when I returned.

The Leprechauns also had a close call on our very first cache hunt after purchasing GMRS radios. When we located stage two of a multicache, my daughter was interested in exploring a field of nearby wildflowers while I gathered the information needed for the next stage. On our way to stage four, located in dense undergrowth, I asked Little Leprechaun to search to the left of the trail while I searched to the right, and for her to keep in touch by radio. "Daddy, my radio's gone!" We had to backtrack through the deep woods, using the ringer feature every 50 feet or so and listening for a response. We finally heard a radio ringing off to the side of the trail near stage two. It had dropped into the wildflower field. Even with the radio making noise, it still took several minutes to find it on the ground. Then we had to complete the multicache!

I have also witnessed a geocacher who left his digital camera at a cache site and had to double back for it. I will not name this geocacher because I do not like to embarrass other people, so I'll just call him "J" and say that he is more "Irish" than even The Leprechauns.

December 2, 2003

I am not sure if I have left something at a cache, but I am famous for taking pens.

I have a habit of always having a pen with me when I am working, and I guess it's automatic for me to keep the pen in my hand while I am closing up/replacing the cache. I usually realize it just as I am getting my things together to leave. D'OH!

December 2, 2003

I personally have not left or forgotten anything, but I have Found at various caches a pocket knife, a sweatshirt, and a walking stick. I was tempted to take the knife but I ended up leaving it.

December 2, 2003

A couple of my caches have had that happen, all higher terrain ratings:

Cell phone

Car keys

Enjoy,

Randy

Edited December 2, 2003 by RJFerret

December 3, 2003

I place one those radio shack walkies on top a trash bag I used to carry a new and a replacement cache.

It was brand new and I was using it for the first time, after removing the new cache to hide it, I placed it on the bag while I hid the cache.

After take several reading with the gps, I grabbed the bag and headed towards the cache that I wanted to replace.

After about 30-45 mins of walking, I realized what I had done. I came back 3 days later with a fellow cacher so she could check my reading and to reclaime my radio.

December 4, 2003

i have to admit this...i have left my gps "in" the cache....had to go get it the next day...

I'm glad nobody went right after me!!!

4.5k · December 4, 2003

My Canon 230 Digital camera. Anyone find it?

Alan

December 4, 2003

I walked back to a cache one night right as it was getting dark. When I got there I was unable to sign the log because I forgot a pen. Still need to go back to that one soon.

2.4k · December 5, 2003

I had my cellphone in my pocket on time, and when i leaned over to toss the rather large cache container back under the bush where it was hidden, the phone fell out of my pocket. I realized this about an hour later, when I wanted to call my wife and see if she was going to be home for dinner. It was too late to go back that day, but the next day I got off work early, and got to hike back up a mountain, in the cold and snow and search for my phone. Fortunately, after thinking about it, I kinda figured it had fell out right at the cache site, so I checked there first, but still, it was a decent hike up to the cache. Phone still worked fine, even after spending the night sitting in the snow.

December 5, 2003

Dropped my cell phone near a cache one day.............did not even realize it. Luckily we had taken my husband's daughter caching that day (her first time) and while she was looking for the cache, she held something up and exclaimed, "look, I found a cell phone!" Mine, of course. Thank goodness for her observant young eyes! :rolleyes:

December 5, 2003

My buddy left his Olympus digital camera on the hood of my other friend's truck while we went merrily off to find a cache at a local park. After we had found the cache, my friend wanted to take a photo of us and he got this sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He realized he'd left the camera somewhere. My friend went back and found a bunch of teenagers and early 20's types tossing around a football in the park while he was looking around for his camera (he didn't remember leaving it on the hood of the truck.) The teenagers noticed my buddy looking and asked him what he was looking for. My buddy told them and they wanted to help him look for it. They seemed overly anxious to help him look for it, to the point that my buddy suspected them of finding it and keeping it at that point. Of course, he couldn't make any accusations but when we got back to our cars and he found his camera, he felt kind of bad for having thought the worst of the kids. He has since been much more aware of where he sets his camera down. :rolleyes: -Ken

2.6k · December 5, 2003

I once left my ''go gaching pack'' [a green canvas camera bag with a neck strap] at The Down Under. After loggin my find and walking a half mile to the next cache, I realized my little helpers didn't have it. I'm still waiting for the good part of that story but did not find it that day. Maybe the person that beat me to it is now into caching since they're now so equiped.

A better story - told at a CVC (Central Valley Cachers) gathering was this.

Two cachers were at a park hunting for a cache when a muggle walks up and ask them what they're doing. Shocked, one cacher replied they had gotten into an agrument and their car keys ended up getting thrown and were lost. The muggle then replied, ''I'll help you look.''

After several minutes of searching, more cachers show up by chance. The first cachers quickly explain to the arriving cachers the alibi and point out the now searching muggle. So now you've got four cachers looking for ''lost keys'' and a muggle not giving up. Now what they think. Do we come clean and tell the guy we lied and have been wasting his time? Or do they wait longer until he gives up? And what if he finds the cache!?!

As a last ditch effort to loose the Good Samuggle (Good Samaritian), one of the cachers digs into his pocket, pulls out his keys and stands up yelling - ''Here they are!''

December 6, 2003

I did cache #50 today. On my very FIRST cache I lost the lense cap to my camera... no big deal? That stinkin lense cap alone is over $30! Yesterday I got an e-mail, 2 months after losing it, that a fellow cahcer had found it and he contacted me by reading logs. Now he is going to place it in another cache where I can retrieve it! I love this! I have also left sunglasses, my GPS and my camera. The only thing I haven't got back so far is the sunglasses!

December 6, 2003

I, with my better half in tow tried to find the Brunel's View cache in Bristol, UK. I walked to the National Trust (Forest Ranger's) hut and found the third clue there.

The cache appeared to be 1/4 mile away, and so we walked all the way to the bottom of a Gorge. The cache then appeared to be uphill, and we could not see a way up. (turns out that the co-ordinates listed on the cache page were wrong!)

It started to rain again, and I opened my bag and put in the cache page I printed out. Somewhere along the way I dropped my wallet- or it fell out of my pocket. We walked back up to where the car was parked and decided to head for home, as the weather was getting worse. Halfway there I noticed that I could not find my wallet. My girlfriend suggested I had left it at her house, so we checked there. No luck.

So we drove back to the woods and walked all the way back down the track, and could not find the wallet. I began getting mad, and then resigned myself (after a few strong and rather loud swearwords) that I had indeed lost my wallet. I took out my mobile phone to call my bank, in order to cancel my cards... and the phone rang!

It was Mastercard, calling to say that my wallet had been found and they had a number for me to call. I called the number they gave me and it was the National Trust office- the Forest Rangers hut! The guys there had called the only number in the wallet- Mastercard's. I went there to collect it, and a person had handed it in and had not left their name or number- so I couldn't give them a reward :-( . The wallet contained my bankcards, Credit Cards, £120 and 100 euro, all still there.

My faith in humanity was restored. Unfortunatly, I still didn't find the cache.

December 7, 2003

I found this log for my of my cache's interesting..

Wow, quite a story on this one.... where to start... first of all, I was bleeding on both legs by the time we got thru all the thorns! lol. Then after finding the cache, my husband and I decided to take advantage of being in the middle of nowhere without the wolfpack and without the kid (should I have included this part? hahaha). Then we hiked back all the way to the car, to which my husband says, "I don't have my phone." What??? Sooooo.... we hike all the way back to the woods, to find that a fellow geocacher had found the cache AND his phone! lol. I guess you could say we technically found this cache twice!! Thank you to jadedhkr for finding the phone! Nice area, good exercise for us (in more ways then one! lol). Thanks for the hunt!!

December 7, 2003

I'm thinking about leaving my old cell phone (working Startac) in a cache, but I'm afraid everyone will think it was left by accident.

December 8, 2003

I just lost my wife's cell phone today while caching. After I get home, feeling all guilty and stuff, the phone rings and it's someone saying they've found our phone and will send it out to us.

Whew.... survived by the skin of my teeth.....

December 8, 2003

Yeah - I've done this. I went on a hunt - about a 4 mile walk. Was pretty huffed out by the time I got there. Sat down to rest, got out my little stash of trade items, made my trade, and off I went. Got back to the car, and realized that I had left my bag back at the cache site. I had about $20 US of coins and bills, and other trade items. I did NOT want to go back...... someone found it. Not a cacher....

December 8, 2003

i have to admit this...i have left my gps "in" the cache....had to go get it the next day...

I'm glad nobody went right after me!!!

LOL...I could just picture your log entry. Took McDonald crapola toy and left GPSr. Now that's trading UP! Thanks for the laugh.

December 8, 2003

Yeah - I've done this. I went on a hunt - about a 4 mile walk. Was pretty huffed out by the time I got there. Sat down to rest, got out my little stash of trade items, made my trade, and off I went. Got back to the car, and realized that I had left my bag back at the cache site. I had about $20 US of coins and bills, and other trade items. I did NOT want to go back...... someone found it. Not a cacher....

That's a bummer Vacman! I wonder if the person that found it was all perplexed by the various contents. Who knows, perhaps they were really superstitious and thought that it dropped out of the sky for them and that each item was meant to represent something symbolic in their life.

Nahhh....they probably pocketed the cash and trashed the rest. :lol:

December 8, 2003

The first cache I found (with a couple of friends) was in march of this year. It was the Washington's Crossing 1 cache. We didn't have a GPS so we downloaded the topo map from the cache page. We wandered around for a bit till we spotted the blue frisbee. Well we signed the log and then found a bird blind not too far away. We soon started to wander back to the car when I noticed I didn't have my black wireframe eyeglasses... We looked all over and retraced our steps around the cache and between the cache and the birdblind... unfortunately we bushwacked to the blind and retracing wasn't exact. Never did find those glasses but had another story to tell the eye doctor (it was probably my sixth pair of glasses in a two year period).

December 8, 2003

When I was looking for this cache I left my PDA sitting right where I sat to sign the log, and discovered it a couple of hours later after I'd been at work for a while. I attempted to go back to get the PDA on my lunch hour, and after running out of gas, calling AAA, etc. I finally arrived there about 5 hours after leaving the PDA there and it was still there! Truly amazing. This was my brand new Palm m125, but luckily in a nice part of town!

Becky

Edited December 8, 2003 by beckerbuns

December 9, 2003

My 100th cache hunt cost me a motorola talkabout radio. It came off my pack while MissJenn, Waterboy and Wife and myself were bushwhacking our way through a thunderstorm. Oh well, somehwere there is a bear that is one radio richer.

1.2k · December 12, 2003

I left my dogs retractable leash behind on one hunt.

December 12, 2003

Not while caching but I left my wallet on a wall after changing out of my bathing suit in Chankanaab Park in Cozumel, Mexico. 5 minutes later a nice local came up and handed it back to me with everything intact.

38.2k · December 13, 2003

I was out for a hike and to do a little cache maintenace. About a mile into the woods, I reached for my Vista and it wasn't there. I got a pit in the bottom of my stomach and I ran all the way back to the parking lot (lucky I didn't break something, as the trail was not one for running on) and there was the GPS still sitting where I left it, on the hood of my car.

I remember another story in these forums where a geocacher was mountain biking and encountered a brand new Meridian Platnum on the side of the trail. Feeling very lucky, he nabbed it and went to put it in his pack next to his own Meridian Platnum...which was gone. He lost it and didn't know it, then found it.

Edited December 14, 2003 by briansnat

December 13, 2003

We were at this cache having visited it just after dark. It was the last cache of the day and weekend. Everything's cool, and the week goes by. Akulakat calls us the next weekend and asks if we want to go out and help him with some hides, so we start packing the cache bag and I don't see the GPS. I ask the G-O-GardenerGal if she's seen it. She's thinking, "that can't be good", and that sinking feeling sets in. It is not to be found. Jonesing for our GPS we go to Akulakat's house where he most generously loaned us his GPS for the weekend. He was excited about trying out Akulakat TOO's new GPS. We cache Saturday away with a breakfast event and caches across town. We got back to the cache site less than an hour before the last daylight of the weekend. It's about a 1.3 mile round trip from the park gate. We're near the cache and the G-O-GardenerGal says, "here it is!". And there it was, in the grass, out in the open, having fallen out of my pocket on the way up the hill."Welcome back, old friend" I said, as I gently cradled the old Garmin GPS III in my hand. I was never so happy to see a GPS in my life.

Thanks

2.7k · December 14, 2003

Yep I've been there a few times. Left my treasured deer hunting knife at a cache. I made a not of that in the log and the cache owners went out the next day and retrieved it for me and mailed it.

I lost myi pda at some cache this summer. Never did find it.

Almost left my flashlight tonight. As I was putting the tupperware back...I noticed a beam coming through. Oops!

edit...later on....how can I forget this one! I'm hard of hearing adn wear hearing aides. Well I had one off and in my pocket while looking for a micro in Seattle. Apparently there's a hole in my shorts and the aide fell through. Got home and couldnt' fnd it. This is several hours of caching after that one.

Rushed back to Seattle and to that stairway cache adn found the aide up against one of the stair steps. Whew!!!! These things are expensive...over 1000 bucks and no insurance to cover them.

Edited December 14, 2003 by evergreenhiker!

December 15, 2003

I leave on one hunt my binocular. I put my bag down, and my son move it more closer to the cache spot and binocular left there. I miss it may be 2 hours later. But I was on some event, and have not time to go back. I wrote it to log, some others geocachers were there no second day to check it, but they did not fint...

December 16, 2003

I decided to place a cache to celebrate my 50th birthday! Quite fun til I got back home and realized I had left my new bifocals at the cache !

December 18, 2003

Just the other day I went looking for a cache. FOund the cache, headed back to the jeep. Lifted the dog into the jeep, and headed home. Got home, got out of the jeep, went to go get the dog out of the back and noticed my GPS sitting on my tail light. I had set it there to put the dog IN the jeep, and forgot i put it down. I had driven all the way down the highway with my GPS sitting on my tail light. I'm still amazed that it survived the ride home. :lol:

3.9k · December 18, 2003

Are you kidding? I've left/forgotten just about everything there is to forget. GPSr twice, digital camera once, cell phone once, dropped and lost cell phone clip (next cacher in found it and left it in another cache for me), dropper GPS in a river after hiding a cache up in a tree over the river. (BTW, Garmin Sport Traks are not really all that waterproof). How about this one. Have you ever forgot to zip up your pack? Yep, did that too. Left geo-swag all down the trail behind me. Luckily all my extremities are attached or I'm sure some of my logs would read something like: Took: WG$, Left: My Arm.

38.2k · December 19, 2003

I thought of one more thing. While searching for the notorious Melvin's Multiple Madness cache, we had to split up into teams. I brought along a few FRS radios to stay in touch and they came in handy. We found the cache, but one of the radios was lost during the hunt. We tried finding it by hitting the page button and wandering around listening for the sound, but no luck. Oh well, they're cheap these days. It's not like losing a GPS or digital camers. The two things I fear.

A few years back, the most expensive things I had with me were my hiking boots and pack when I went outdoors. Not easy to lose those. Now, with the GPS, digital camera and PDA, I'm often carrrying close to a thousand dollars worth of electronic devices along. I'm constantly worrying about losing, or damaging one, or mor of them. So much for getting out to get away from it all :mad: .

December 24, 2003

hmmm.......forgetting things at cache site......

Note to self, develop checklist (pilots are notorious for checklists) to check when leaving sites.....

Appropriate trade items left......check

Logbook signed.....check

GPS....check

Digital camera back in pack........check

Backpack zipped and fastened....check

Sunglasses......check

Walking stick.....check

Cell phone (I hate cell phone).....check.....

Ok, that is about it.........what am I forgetting?????

oh yea,,,,the twin kids.......... .....Now that would be a heck of a cache find...LOL

3.1k · December 28, 2003

I have nearly left my gloves behind many times. I always take them off once the cache is open.

At one recent cache, I almost left my GPS behind when a low branch snagged the lanyard and yanked it out of my pocket. I noticed it was missing when I was about 50 feet away, but it took ten minutes to find it.

December 29, 2003

I too have made a sacrifice to the Geocaching alter. After purchasing 2 sets of 4 NIMH 2200 batteries I put two in the GPS and put the second set in their plastic case then dropped them in a small zippered pocket on my rucksack.

After wandering around in the woods and climbing the escarpment to get to this cache, I dug around for a pen in my ruck. At some point I must have opened the small zippered pocket and dropped off a set of charged batteries at the cache site.

I never made it back to check if they were there......

:unsure:

Anyone find a set of Powerex 2200 cells at Geocache

by Youngpup, Dancing Fox & Oldboots

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...0-AF5A77ADBBD8}

December 29, 2003

I left my favorite walking stick that I got at Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

I left it at the Zephyr Cache while caching with RJFerret at the Geo Jamboree.

It's RJFerret's fault really. If I had been so amused and distracted by him NOT finding the cache I might not have forgotten it. We realized that I left it after leaving Leatherman Hill Cache. We were literally dragging a** after doing five caches, hiking 7 miles and no food; I/we had no desire to tramping back to retrieve my walking stick.

And, then at Cache at the Beach I ran into Casey's Crew. It came up in conversation that they found a walking stick at Zephyr Cache . MINE! How funny is that??

Finally, at the Selden Neck Canoe/Kayak Event I met up with Casey's Crew again. And . . . lo and behold . . . they brought my long lost walking stick. A little worse for wear but still mine. YEA!

So, there is a happy ending to my tale.

There was one other thing that I found at theSelden Neck Canoe/Kayak Event. Can you guess? Can you believe it? Love!

How cool is THAT?? :unsure:

Happy caching and STUFF!!

3.5k · December 31, 2003

I dropped my favorite pen/pencil/stylus combo at a rest area cache while I was on a trip one day. I came very close to driving off without it, but turned around and re-traced my path on the GPS screen and there it was, laying in the grass!

We had a cacher from the St. Louis come up to hunt once and he forgot a pair of sunglasses on top of a cache. So, a group of us met at a friend's bookstore/coffee shop and tortured him so he could get it back. We gave him coordinates to the parking lot and made him stand and wave a blue flag while wearing one glove...we of course were inside the shop laughing and taking pictures. Finally we let him know where we were and gave the glasses back to him.

Funny thing was they were a cheap pair of "Gas station" glasses that probably cost under $5.00 and were definitely not worth the trip from St. Louis to get. However, the chance to meet up with a few other cachers apparently was worth the trip. We also gave him some left over t-shirts and a coffee mug from our last event cache and he gave us an un-released travel bug. All in all it was a fun little meeting.

December 31, 2003

I lost my DOG at my first ever caching find! :blink: She took off after a deer I guess.

I searched for her for 1/2 hour before finally just returning to the car. I started the car and called out to her and she came out of the galloping out of the woods.

She was wet and her foot was bleeding but she was OK. I was never so relieved to see her in my life! I didn't scold her at all for running off I just rewarded her with the biggest hug she's ever gotten for coming back! :bad:

December 31, 2003

On one of my first 10 caches I got almost to the cache when I realized I had left my goodies bag laying on top of the van. When we got back to it I found that not only did I leave the bag but I also left the drivers door wide open with the keys in the ignition. And I once left a retractable keychain I found in a cache (that I :blink: :bad: wanted for my son who was not with me this day) on the ground next to the cache. I had made good restitution for that item too.

December 31, 2003

I left a Handspring Visor Deluxe PDA and a Magallen GPS Companion after finding this multistage urban cache...

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...&ID=94324&log=y

I didn't realize I had left it until the next morning. By the time I got back there, it was gone. I like to think that there is a new geocacher out there now, placing caches for me to find, in order to replay me for my charity. :blink:

I ended up replacing the pair with identical but used units for a total of $75. Bringing expensive gear geocaching is a risk I will never take again. YMMV.

-Rick

January 2, 2004

I dropped my very favorite geocaching red pen near a cache last winter. The good part of the story is the next finder logged it as a find and used it to log many more finds. I guess I just like being helpful.

1.7k · January 3, 2004

I've lost a lot of things.

Yesterday, I found a lens cap near a cache. If the owner doesn't speak up, it goes onto my new TravelBug: Found Near a Cache

January 3, 2004

Add me to the 'lost cell phone' list. I went back, as it was a pretty small area to search and no luck. Next time i carry cell phone in a tupperware container, then I'll find it no problem! Then it snowed a foot. So I figure it will no longer function if I find it anyways.

Good news is I now have a Web-enabled phone, great for www.geocaching.com/wap !!! Not quite a PDA, but in a crunch or in need of a clue it'll do!

January 3, 2004

Nothing lost in caches YET. But I skateboard (mark me with a bad reputation now why dont you) And while out street skating (What skates call it when going to natural places instead of skateparks such as a set of stairs, or ledges to do tricks on) once I left my cell phone at a 4 stair (infact where i left it there is a cache located about 100 feet away). The next day a lady called saying she had a phone with my name and home # in its phone book. She came and droped it off to me.

I had noticed it was missed but just thought it was in my room some where. Probably would have even attempted searching for it until i needed it again (who knows when that could be too)

January 3, 2004

I decided to place a cache to celebrate my 50th birthday! Quite fun til I got back home and realized I had left my new bifocals at the cache !

so were you ever able to find you new bifocals, without your bifocals!!???!!?! LOL!

January 8, 2004

In my earlier months of caching, I was at a cache an hour into Las Trampas Wilderness in the Bay Area. While I was logging, every couple of minutes I heard a beep-beep noise. After 10 minutes of this, I found a cell phone that the last cacher had dropped. The beep-beep was the low battery warning.

Did You Leave Something Forgotten After Caching?

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