Cachetastrophes

[+Seesthewind and Lavamama]

I'm re-creating this topic for cachers to describe and/or show the worst disasters that have befallen one of their own caches or one that they have found in an unusual state of "archivability".

 

I first ran this topic in November of 2002. By now, there should be some really good [bad] cachetastrophic endings to share.

 

Please don't describe ordinary "trashed caches". We've all heard enough about those.

 

To get things started, here is my worst OH S*** ever:

 

 

The 500,000 acre "Biscuit" fire in southern Oregon and northern California in the summer of 2002 claimed our "Tres Madrones" Cache on the North Fork of the Smith River just below the Oregon border. The Biscuit fire was the largest forest fire in the country in 2002 and the largest in Oregon in nearly a hundred years.

Edited April 15, 2005 by Seesthewind and Lavamama

[+Divine]

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW TO POST A LINK TO A PAGE FROM MY WEBSITE OR JUST TO A JPEG PHOTO FILE?  NOTHING I'VE TRIED SO FAR WORKS.  (AND IT USED TO BE SO EASY.)  I'VE BEEN AWAY FOR AWHILE.  HAS THIS FEATURE BEEN ELIMINATED?

Use the buttons above the textbox where you write your post. The code for link to a page or an image in the web looks like this (remove the spaces from inside the brackets):

 

[ URL=http://your web page's URL ]text here[ /URL ]

[ IMG ]http://image's URL[ /IMG ]

Edited April 15, 2005 by Divine

[+StarBrand]

Probably a bit ordinary.......

 

I had cache placed on a small hill overlooking the river valley near a parking area frequented by truckers catching 40 winks. The place has been there for the 11 years I've been around the area. It was hidden in an old rusting twisted piece of metal sticking out of the ground.

 

About 2 months after placing the cache, the state highway department bulldozed the hill and moved all the dirt off to one side of a now larger flattened area. They are now using it to store sand/gravel for use of slick and icy roads.

 

I'm sure the little tupperware is sitting happily inside the metal tomb buried under a few tons of bulldozed dirt and moved just about 150 feet from original placement. (Too bad the guidelines prohibit using a shovel....sigh)

 

 

BTW: I don't much care for childish bending of the rules to place swear words where they do not belong!! (see OP)

[+carleenp]

A tornado/flood moved the tree that one of my Mother's caches was in. She originally could not find it, but when we went back to replace it later, we found the tree, which had been moved and turned around, and found the wet cache still inside. We rescued Mom's TB from it and replaced it with a new dry cache.

 

I hid a cache in a tree that was damaged by that same tornado. The parks came along a bit later and cut down the tree. I need to go out and see if I can find it in a tree pile and replace the cache.

 

I had a cache shot up. Twice.

[SteveRichards]

Glad you could find it after a tornado got it.

Edited April 15, 2005 by SteveRichards

[+Spencersb]

My very first hide fell victim to a developer's bulldozer at the ripe old age of 2 months! Found out later it wasn't actually a bulldozer, it was this huge mowing machine with a big rotating drum on the front, with big teeth that just chews up everything in it's path! It mowed down some pretty good size trees!

[+Renegade Knight]

I came across a bulldozed cache. It was bent but still opened up. Since the location was now stripped of vegitation I moved the cache to another spot the same owner had and sent them an email. They archived it in due time. I was able to sign the log, get it closed (with enough force). The contents were ok.

[+Ambrosia]

Pretty ordinary, but I've had two different cache locations altered due to beavers. They seem to be intent on eating the trees that I am putting my caches in.

[+Seesthewind and Lavamama]

Thanks for the help Divine. The forums rejected the format of my website page. I'm still pondering that. I WAS, however, able to post the appropriate photo from the web page.

 

Now that the photo's up, it can be seen that the fire rating of standard ammo cans is rather low

[adampierson]

Wow that is impressive (pics of the burned cache). The logbook is charred but it is still looks like it is in readable condition.

[+Camo-crazed]

On topic bit:

I once heard of a cache that got flattened by a road building truck thingamajigger, a waste of a perfectly good ammo can, too.

 

Who left the charred chopsticks, or was that the natural degradation of the cache contents?

 

Off topic bit:

Can anyone see my avatar? I don't B)

Edited April 16, 2005 by Camo-crazed

[+Blind Avocado]

My first cache is either washed out to sea or under this pile of debris that washed down the creek by the recent floods and stopped by the bridge where it was hidden.

 

Edited April 16, 2005 by Blind Avocado

[+QDman]

Can anyone see my avatar? I don't

No. Apparently, your camo is working.

[BCR]

Who left the charred chopsticks

 

Doesn't everybody get their eating utensils from caches? Here's a cache that started as a disaster and included a plastic spoon as trade item.

 

[+Seesthewind and Lavamama]

No, those aren't chopstick remains. Good guess though. Believe it or not, that's whats left of the top of the Zip Lok baggie that contained the log book. Why it didn't melt is beyond me. But I'm GLAD.

Edited April 17, 2005 by Seesthewind and Lavamama