Getting A Bit Spooked

[FiddlinFool]

OK, OK, this is getting a bit weird...

 

A couple of weeks back I was getting ready to put a new cache into a hollow tree off a trail in a local park, started excavating a spot for the cache and discovered there was already one in there underneath a bunch of rubble, now it's happened for the second time in about 3 weeks. I was out scouting for a spot for a new cache in a local park, walked all the trails and noted several good looking potential spots. Noted what looked to be the best location. Came back the next day with the cache ready to stash, started poking around in the spot I'd picked and found another cache already in there. Just like the first time, it was the last stage of a multi, so its location was not available from the website. That's twice in a row I almost placed a cache right on top of an existing one.

 

So, are all of our parks getting saturated with caches, or am I just freakishly (un)lucky? Maybe I should just leave the GPSr at home and find caches by wandering about at random and looking in likely spots. I should mention that these two caches were not in obvious spots right next to the trail, but off in the broccoli a ways and both had been in place quite a while without getting muggled.

[+JohnnyVegas]

Save yourself some time, next time you go out to hide a cache down load all the caches in the area into your GPS. Then you will not end up trying to hide a cache were there is one, or were there may be one within 1/10th of a mile which would not be approved.

Edited April 6, 2005 by JohnnyVegas

[+New England n00b]

Excavating?

[FiddlinFool]

No... the point is these have been the final stages of multis, of course I keep all the local caches in my GPS, but some of these multis are spread all over the place and unless I track down every one in SE lower Michigan, I'll never know where all the final stages are. The initial stage coordinates posted on the geocaching.com website could be in Timbuktu and the final stage could be right in my back yard.

 

By excavating, I meant clearing away sticks, bark, and debris, not digging holes, sorry.

 

FiddlinFool

[+reveritt]

It happened to me once, too.

 

I think the way to avoid it is to get farther away from the nearest parking lot. Find someplace that requires a walk of at least a mile, and you are much less likely to have this problem. Obviously, check the web sites for nearest listed caches.

[+hukilaulau]

No... the point is these have been the final stages of multis, of course I keep all the local caches in my GPS, but some of these multis are spread all over the place and unless I track down every one in SE lower Michigan, I'll never know where all the final stages are. The initial stage coordinates posted on the geocaching.com website could be in Timbuktu and the final stage could be right in my back yard.

 

By excavating, I meant clearing away sticks, bark, and debris, not digging holes, sorry.

 

FiddlinFool

...but they're probably not. It's more likely that all the stages are in the same park, and if you hunt down all the multis in the park you want to hide in, you will know what spots are free. This has been suggested many times in the forums. At least find all the multis within a mile of where you want to hide.

If you don't want to hunt these down, you can ask the owners of any multis in your area if they have any stages within the general area you want to hide in.

[+Robespierre]

No... the point is these have been the final stages of multis,

Your approver will correct your error...he won't let you do it. Now, realise that it's Spring and a lot of people are getting active. You apparently live in a cacher-dense area. Get creative-er??

[+StarBrand]

Never happened to me - but it sounds like you share the same great eye for placement as a few others!!!

[Kybra]

Maybe you're unwitingly dousing great cache sites, you've become so intune with the sport that you have risen to a higher plane, The GPSr has become a symbol of a petty false god in your quintisentual existance

[+TetrAmigos]

Maybe you're unwitingly dousing great cache sites, you've become so intune with the sport that you have risen to a higher plane, The GPSr has become a symbol of a petty false god in your quintisentual existance

[+The Leprechauns]

Hello Fiddlin Fool,

 

I would like to invite you on an all-expenses paid trip to Pittsburgh, where I live. You see, I suck at puzzle caches. Can't figure them out, especially if there's math. All's I know is that the final stages are supposed to be within a mile or two of the published bogus coordinates.

 

What I'd like to do is just drive around with you near the posted coordinates for the puzzle caches that I cannot find. I presume that you would "alert" when you sense a cache container nearby, sort of like a good hunting dog. I would then park, follow you into the woods, and we can both log the find.

 

If you have any special requirements, like a favorite brand of beer, please let me know.

[+sbell111]

Good idea, Lep.

 

FF, if you are available for a trip to the midsouth, I think I can find a few people to share the cost of your trip, plus a reasonable profit for you, of course.

[+Isonzo Karst]

I've been known to solve puzzles, and I drink Spaten Optimator.....

[+blazerfan]

I had a similar thing happen to me... I went to hide a cache and found a letterbox. No problem I started looking for another spot in the same park found this great looking hollow tree... Then I noticed the tree had a second hollow that had been cleaverly covered with a prefectly fitting peice of wood... inside was the first part of the two part letterbox... a great hide, but in a place so large I couldn't believe I found both of those hiding spots without knowing.

[+Team Tigger International]

No... the point is these have been the final stages of multis, of course I keep all the local caches in my GPS, but some of these multis are spread all over the place and unless I track down every one in SE lower Michigan, I'll never know where all the final stages are.

Did you log them?

 

Wulf

[+fly46]

Hello Fiddlin Fool,

 

I would like to invite you on an all-expenses paid trip to Pittsburgh, where I live. You see, I suck at puzzle caches. Can't figure them out, especially if there's math. All's I know is that the final stages are supposed to be within a mile or two of the published bogus coordinates.

 

What I'd like to do is just drive around with you near the posted coordinates for the puzzle caches that I cannot find. I presume that you would "alert" when you sense a cache container nearby, sort of like a good hunting dog. I would then park, follow you into the woods, and we can both log the find.

 

If you have any special requirements, like a favorite brand of beer, please let me know.

When you finish with that, I have a couch with your name on it here in Nashville.

You can log finds on all of mine without having to find them. What brand of beer was that, again?

 

There's got to be enough of us here to be able to afford that.

[+Mopar]

I drink Spaten Optimator.....

Good choice!

[uber_bike_geek]

Never mind... My bad!

 

Happy Caching

Jeff

Edited April 6, 2005 by uber_bike_geek

[+TeamK-9]

I've never actually stumbled upon a cache, but I've spent time planning a cache, only to find a cache approved there right before I go out to hide...

[+Prairie Dog]

A similar thing happened to me too. I was out hunting a newly approved cache hoping to be FTF when I spotted an ammo box about 40 feet away from posted coords and slightly exposed. Turns out I had found the final stage of a tricky puzzle cache. I signed the log and continued hunting the new cache. I found it about 30 minutes later, not more than 30 feet from the puzzle cache. After the confusion was worked out the new cache being so close to this other one had to be archived. First time anything like that has happened to me.

[Stony2008]

It happened to me once, too.

 

ditto.

 

your story is intriguing

 

finding caches like that would freak me out to.

[+Team Wheaties]

Leprechaun thanks for the laugh