Can't Believe I Did This !!

[WranglerTJ]

I thought I would revisit the general vacinity of my first cache find to pick-up some litter I had seen but wasn't able to reach the first time. Back to the area I went with my home-made hiking stick which now allowed me to retrieve a few paper and plastic bags that were previously out-of-reach. Litter drives me crazy so having felt good about doing my CITO part, I was on my way back home when I realized my 3-week old Garmin 60CS was missing. I remember slipping it in my left hip pocket and now it was nowhere to be seen. Talk about panic! What if some fortunate but dishonest sole had picked it up in the parking lot maybe?. I had my name and phone number on it, but still no guarantee it would be returned.

 

How would I feel if the wheels of my Jeep found it before I did? I had a Palm III a few years ago that somehow popped off my belt clip while entering my vehicle. Of course I didn't know this until I heard a cracking sound when backing out-of my garage. Needless to say paperless caching is not in my future. My IIIxe never leaves the house.

 

So off I went retracing my route covered over ground. After the better part of 2 hours I found my GPSr in about 2 feet of grass, not in the vacinity of the cache, by the way. I covered a lot of ground that day. What was looking like a really expensive day turned out to be a great learning experience. I now have a lanyard and carabiner for all my gear.

 

 

WranglerTJ

[+Anonymous']

Smooth move exlax

[+Team Tigger International]

I've left my eMap at a cache or two when I walked away. My biggest problem tho is leaving my keys in the trunk lock of my bike when I park it. I usually notice before I get too far but one time I was gone for 1/2 hr caching.

 

Wulf

[+Ed & Julie]

I left my Garmin Legend at a cache in the excitement of a FTF.

 

I didn't even relize it until I got a call from another cacher who found it.

 

Ed

[+Stunod]

My MeriPlat slipped out of my pocket, most likely while I was crossing a stream. Never saw it again

[+AuntieWeasel]

I sat down to rest on a rock at a big pile of rocks near a cache site last week. About thirty feet away, something caught my eye. "Huh. That looks like my PDA." And sure enough. It was over twice as expensive as my GPSr, so that would've bummed me severely.

 

And the cache was a DNF

[+reveritt]

During my first winter of geocaching, I was walking an snowy trail beside a pond. I came to a steep downhill stretch, and gingerly began working my way down the slope. Of course, I fell on my butt and slid 20 feet. I was at least a quarter mile farther down the trail when I realized I didn't have my GPSr, and had to retrace my route. There it was--right next to the giant a**-print in the snow.

[+Miragee]

Recently I left my Swag bag near a cache location.

 

I didn't realize it was missing for two days. By then it was long gone.

 

If that had been one of my usual rural, back-country caches, it might have still been there, but that day I was in the big city.

 

The people at the nearby museum I called to ask about it assured me the kneepad in it was being used as a pillow by one of the many transients in the area . . .

 

They didn't know what the McToys were doing.

[+badlands]

Dropped the GPSr in the mud a couple of times, but haven't lost it yet. My claim to fame is setting the keys down in the trunk.........doh....and then closing the trunk.

[+BlueDeuce]

I'm most likely to lose an item at a cache site so I've make it a habit to do a 'slap check' before I walk away. Wallet, cell phone, keys, gps, pda, pack.

 

Try setting everything down so you can search a wider area for a cache and then realize you don’t remember where you started! No smilies for finding your own stuff!

[+cache_test_dummies]

The day after I bought my Garmin Vista I was crossing a long wooden footbridge which ran over the lower end of a pond. I stopped to take a picture, and while I was fiddling with the camera, I dropped the GPSr. It hit the decking on the footbridge, and my heart sank as I watched it bounce once toward the edge before it slid to a stop within a couple of inches of the edge.

 

Since that moment, I always keep the Vista attached to my wrist with a lanyard.

 

I'm most likely to lose an item at a cache site so I've make it a habit to do a 'slap check' before I walk away. Wallet, cell phone, keys, gps, pda, pack.

I do the same thing. Probably looks a bit silly, but who's watching?

 

edit: spelling

Edited April 23, 2005 by cache_test_dummies

[+planemaker]

I thought I would revisit the general vacinity of my first cache find to pick-up some litter I had seen but wasn't able to reach the first time. Back to the area I went with my home-made hiking stick which now allowed me to retrieve a few paper and plastic bags that were previously out-of-reach. Litter drives me crazy so having felt good about doing my CITO part, I was on my way back home when I realized my 3-week old Garmin 60CS was missing. I remember slipping it in my left hip pocket and now it was nowhere to be seen. Talk about panic! What if some fortunate but dishonest sole had picked it up in the parking lot maybe?. I had my name and phone number on it, but still no guarantee it would be returned.

 

How would I feel if the wheels of my Jeep found it before I did? I had a Palm III a few years ago that somehow popped off my belt clip while entering my vehicle. Of course I didn't know this until I heard a cracking sound when backing out-of my garage. Needless to say paperless caching is not in my future. My IIIxe never leaves the house.

 

So off I went retracing my route covered over ground. After the better part of 2 hours I found my GPSr in about 2 feet of grass, not in the vacinity of the cache, by the way. I covered a lot of ground that day. What was looking like a really expensive day turned out to be a great learning experience. I now have a lanyard and carabiner for all my gear.

 

 

WranglerTJ

I feel your pain.......I have lost 2 cell phones that way. I think that the belt clip manufacturers get a commission everytime a cell phone is replaced!

[+JohnnyVegas]

I once got to a cache location only to find I could not find my Sport track map. I had just come from another cache and I had set it down on the windshield whiper on the drivers side of my truck. I use a Meridian gold to get from cache area to cache area, so I had not nitice it missing. Well I drove all the way back to the first cache site, which was about down and up three miles of roads looking for my gps on the road, I could not find it. I even check the site if the first cache, no luck. I get back to my truck an I see my GPS now on the wind sheild whiper on the passengers side, I did lose my sport track map a few months later while doing a cache

[+Team Wampus]

A few weeks ago, a local cacher and his wife were out on an ftf run at 3:00 in the morning (I don't think he works!). He lost a 2-way radio somewhere around one of my new cemetery caches and couldn't find it with just his flashlight, so he had his wife calling to him on the remaining radio while he searched for it by sound. I had this mental picture of someone else hearing her voice coming from the ground in this cemetery! "Dennis! Dennis! I'm over here! Come and get me!"

[+DuncanClan]

A few months back I left my GPSr on top of my truck and didn't realize it until I was several miles (and turns) down the road. My heart sank into my gut when I realized what I had done. I pulled over, and it was still there...thank goodness for that rubber backing!

 

DC

[+Tharagleb]

I ... uh... well I lost my glasses *twice* (didn't find them either time). I also locked my keys in my car once. (there went four hours I could have been caching.) I wound up in the emergency room once (it was *not* a broken leg as I feared). But I haven't been caching all that long.

[+Isonzo Karst]

A GeoBuddy of mine left his Garmin at one of the first caches he'd ever found. Didn't realize it was missing til the following weekend! Tore the house apart, then returned to the cache site, and there it was, right where he'd put it down.

[+the hermit crabs]

While out hiding a cache, I was wearing Rx sunglasses. It was dark in the woods, so I took them off in order to be able to read the GPS. Got the cache placed, coords recorded, and everything all packed up; I walked out of the woods by a different way. I spotted a much better location about half a mile away from the original spot. I was sorta feeling too lazy to go back and get the cache, but the new spot was too good to pass up, so I turned around to retrieve the cache. At the original site, I had to kind of lean down into a rock crevice to get it, and I put my hand on a leaf-covered ledge for balance -- and my hand landed right on my glasses, which I had left there from the first trip there. And which I really needed to be able to drive home

[+sbell111]

I used to have a series of micros. Originally, they were all film cans, but some used glued on magnets, other velcro. Some just sat there waiting to be found.

 

Since micros are always going missing or getting wet, I kept an ammo can in my jeep full of supplies. It had fresh containers, baggies, logs, glue, magnets, velcro, a pair of scissors, and some other stuff. One day I noticed that it was missing. Apparently, I carried it out to fix up a micro and never brought it back to the jeep.

 

Oops.

[+WeWereWaz]

Lost my Palm IIIxe either during or immediately after a DNF in Savannah, GA (the cache was Forsyth Park, which was behind a construction fence). Did not realize untill I was packing in the hotel the next morning. Taxied all around to the different cache sites I had done the previous day, but no luck. This was back in Feb 05. Any Savannah cachers run across a Palm III (or know where I could contact the local lost & found).

 

Once you go paperless, you canna go back - I have a 'new' used Palm III...

[+StarBrand]

I've left my trusty Garmin Legend at 3 different caches. Twice, I was just back at the car when I remembered. The other time I was about 30 miles away when panic set in. Good thing I mostly visit caches that see at most 20 visitors a year. It has a lanyard, always has, I use it regularly and I have learned to do the quick pat-down but I still leave it. I also have a Garmin 60C but I have managed to keep that with me. Just something about the legend.

[+High-Tech Redneck]

Just yesterday after reading this thread and thinking, Man these guys must be idiots, I was going to my sons little league game.

 

Get out of the car, grab keys, grab coat, grab water bottle and soda, lock car up. Gotta pee. Fortunately I parked right next to a portable toilet. I go in and the lid is up. I think to myself, man it would really suck to drop something like my keys in that hole so I close the lid.

 

This is one of the new toilets see that has the urinal on the wall. This is a clean toilet, no smell no mess, so I decide I need to set my coat and stuff down and I set it on the now closed seat.

 

I do my business and grab the drinks, then grab my coat and hear the keys bang against the back wall and see them partially disappear between the wall and the tank. Whew! Almost lost them. I went to grab them just as they continued their southward migration to the floor of the hut wedged between the back wall and the tank.

 

Aint NO WAY my fat hand is gonna get in there to retrieve them. Now what???? Fortunately I had a spare key in my wallet to get back in the car. In my geocaching backpack I have been packing around a coiled up piece of bailing wire since I started. My wife is contantly wondering why in the world I would be packing that around with us. Now I know why. I fasioned a hook and after a little fishing in the honey hut I had my keys back.

[+Quintheeskimo66]

I'm most likely to lose an item at a cache site so I've make it a habit to do a 'slap check' before I walk away. Wallet, cell phone, keys, gps, pda, pack.

 

Try setting everything down so you can search a wider area for a cache and then realize you don’t remember where you started! No smilies for finding your own stuff!

"Slap Check"

 

That is the very same method that I use. I even use it when I leave the house for work (or leave work for home) I've been using it for years. But when I'm caching, I have to do a bit more slapping.

 

My close calls have been slightly less severe.

 

I once dropped the stylus to my PDA when putting cache notes in, and walked away without realizing it. I had walked just under a mile when I pulled my PDA back out to check the listing for the cache I was heading too. D'oh...I hightailed it back to the cache location, and spent the next 30 minutes looking for it. Luckily I found it under the rocks that the hiding the cache.

 

And around Christmas time, I went to put my PDA in my inner coat pocket...and missed. It dropped hard on the ground (luckily I keep it in a metal padded case). I picked it up, turned it on and all seemed fine. I went on to the next cache I was planning on. This time, after about 1.5 miles I pulled out the PDA and couldn't figure out why my GPXSonar couldn't find my .gpx file. Then I looked and saw that the SD card that contained the file was MISSING!!! The jolt of hitting the ground must have ejected it. Yikes!!! That was a 512 card!!! So once again, I am hightailing it back where I dropped the PDA. Luckily I found it lying just off the path in the snow. I dried it off and put it back in, and it continues to work fine to this very day.

 

What have I learned from these experiences???

I purchased a pack of generic PDA stylus things, and I also carry a 3-in-1 pen/pencil/stylus. So I always have a spare.

 

As for the SD card, I started using the CF card for storing my .gpx files on (it doesn't pop out because the slot isn't spring loaded) And I try to be more careful when putting it back in my pocket.

[+AuntieWeasel]

I once dropped the stylus to my PDA when putting cache notes in, and walked away without realizing it.  I had walked just under a mile when I pulled my PDA back out to check the listing for the cache I was heading too.  D'oh...I hightailed it back to the cache location, and spent the next 30 minutes looking for it.

You walked a mile for a stylus? I tip my hat to you. Shoot, I'm not sure I'd do that for my very favorite stylus...the expensive heavy one that I laboriously chipped all the black enamel off of with my thumbnail one night, revealing the lovely brass underneath.

 

Wait...where is that thing, anyhow?

[+Quintheeskimo66]

I once dropped the stylus to my PDA when putting cache notes in, and walked away without realizing it.  I had walked just under a mile when I pulled my PDA back out to check the listing for the cache I was heading too.  D'oh...I hightailed it back to the cache location, and spent the next 30 minutes looking for it.

You walked a mile for a stylus? I tip my hat to you. Shoot, I'm not sure I'd do that for my very favorite stylus...the expensive heavy one that I laboriously chipped all the black enamel off of with my thumbnail one night, revealing the lovely brass underneath.

 

Wait...where is that thing, anyhow?

Now that you put it that way,perhaps it wasn't the smartest thing to to. BUT at that time.....well ....It seemed like the thing to do.

 

and to top it all off, I lost that stylus some time later. I'm currently using one of the replacments that I bought.

Edited April 27, 2005 by Quintheeskimo66

[+Sonoran Privateers]

The cure to this ailment is simple:

Ditch the stylus entirely; grow the finger nail of your pinky-finger out real long. Then you can just poke at your PDA with an elevated look of sophistication.

[The Band of Brothers]

I like lanyards

[+Cachew]

My daughter lost a GPS12MAP in the back seat of a New York taxicab and had her backack ripped off in Australia - with a brand new MAP76S. pooh!

[+The Penguinz]

I pulled one of these recently. We have a cache that requires a lot of bushwhacking. No two cachers go in the same way. I noticed when I got back to the Cache-uinox I was missing a cell phone. It also happend to be the only thing that wasn't in a zippered or velcroed pocket, or hooked to a clip. After mentioning it in my online log, many folks have tried to find it, but so far, without success. Mrs. Penguin did her now famous eyeroll/head shake, and spared me the lecture.

[gridlox]

I pulled one of these recently. We have a cache that requires a lot of bushwhacking. No two cachers go in the same way. I noticed when I got back to the Cache-uinox I was missing a cell phone. It also happend to be the only thing that wasn't in a zippered or velcroed pocket, or hooked to a clip. After mentioning it in my online log, many folks have tried to find it, but so far, without success. Mrs. Penguin did her now famous eyeroll/head shake, and spared me the lecture.

I know this sounds obvious, but...

 

Have you went back to the general area and used another cell phone to call the missing cell phone?

 

At a business that I used to work for the cordless was "AT LEAST DAILY" being misplaced.

 

We would use one of the other lines to call the number and let it ring until it was located.

 

Once it had been knocked of a desk, into a waste basket, and taken out to the dumpster!

 

Thank Goodness I didn't have to do the dumpster diving!!

 

D-man

[+Mystery Ink]

Thanks for the thread, makes me fell not alone in my plight.

 

Lost?? Three weeks ago while doing a late in the day hunt the day before my son was to go into the hospital.

 

Had new Canon A95 camera with 1GB card. During the last find, wanting to go home because my son was not feeling well, and his wanting to stay and find just one more.

 

Well didn't realize until two weeks later, no camera. Loking for them to be on sale, but no luck yet.

 

See, life can sometimes become so cluttered, need GPS for the mind.

 

[+Miragee]

Oh, Mystery Ink, that is so sad.

 

Makes me feel silly to still be pining over my missing swag bag and the cool trade items I had traded for and not brought in the house yet . . .

 

P.S. I hope your son is okay now.

[+Mystery Ink]

Thank you, he is recovering but slow. After going thru this last week, it all seems silly, silly to loose stuff and silly to pine away over it.

 

But at least it feels good to know I am among the best of company when it comes to loosing stuff. More than one time have I said, "Dag Nabbit". I think that is why they put little loops on the cuff of my jacket and clips on my gloves.

 

Have a great week

[WH]

When you are out caching, attach your car keys to your GPS.

 

Since the GPS is usually the first thing you grab when heading up the trail, your keys will come with it. If you forget your GPS at the cache, you certainly won't be driving anywhere until you find it.

[+Mystery Ink]

Thanks for the tip with the keys attached to my gear. Will do.

[+Quintheeskimo66]

Thanks for the thread, makes me fell not alone in my plight.

 

Lost??  Three weeks ago while doing a late in the day hunt the day before my son was to go into the hospital.

 

Had new Canon A95 camera with 1GB card.  During the last find, wanting to go home because my son was not feeling well, and his wanting to stay and find just one more.

 

Well didn't realize until two weeks later, no camera.  Loking for them to be on sale, but no luck yet. 

 

See, life can sometimes become so cluttered, need GPS for the mind.

 

   

Speaking of cameras....I was caching with a small group at a state park, one of the cachers started to slide down the hill but managed to catch himself. Unfortunately while he stopped, the nice digital camera that was in his pocket continued on in the same direction that he had been going previously. And it only gets worse from there. The hillside was fairly steep so we watched it bounce down and down the hill (I even heard what I swear was a picture being taken) until it went over the edge and down into a ravine.

 

Here is a picture that was taken near where the camera took it's last picture.

May it rest in pieces.

 

 

But on the bright side, he managed to save the granola bar that was in his other pocket.

 

(names have been witheld to protect the innocent)

[+Jc4199]

I like lanyards

Until they break Had my sport track around my neck lanyard and was putting rocks back dropped the rock right as my sport track went under it. Thank god it still works for the most part. Every once in a great while it will erase all the way points sotred in it.