Geocaching

For me this geocache should have been called Unlucky You! I searched and searched for this cache. I found all of the spots that the cache description and hint refer to and I still couldn’t find it. I even called my brother who had found this cache in the past and he confirmed I was in the right spot. I have a feeling that this cache is no longer there.

*It has now been almost a month* since I DNF on this cache and contacted the owner. To the best of my knowledge they have not gone and checked on it and the cache remains active. Rather annoying*

Boy was this day off to a terrible start. I had just DNF’d on Homestar Runner Geocache Series #2-Marzipan and when I got to this cache it quickly became apparent that I was going to DNF on it as well. The problem here is that the cache is on a public trail between some house and one of those houses is doing construction. The construction that they are doing involved removing a large section of fence. So searching for this cache makes you feel like you are in some strangers backyard. I didn’t linger long as I just didn’t feel comfortable. I will be back!

This was a very disappointing DNF for me. I enjoy Homestar Runner but I must admit that the biggest draw to me to the site is Strong Bad and his emails. Anyway, solving the puzzle for this cache was pretty easy and it turned out that it was very close to my house so I headed on up to grab it.

This cache does something rather clever, it’s a multi stage, and at the first stage of the cache you retrieve a key and then at the final stage you use this key to open the cache. I had to deal with muggles a little bit at the first stage of this cache but it wasn’t a big deal and I quickly had the key in hand. I then headed over to the second stage and this is where things turned sour.

Given the hints from the Official Geocache Page I knew I was most definitely in the right spot and the cache was nowhere to be found. I absolutely scoured the area and it simply wasn’t there. When I got home that evening I contacted the cache owner and they confirmed that it must be gone as well.

This cache has become a bit of a thorn in my side. The cache is still missing a month after I told them that it was gone and worst of all, the cache owners haven’t even bothered to mark the cache as inactive. Just the other day someone went to go and try and pick up this cache but of course they couldn’t because it’s missing. It would take the owners seconds to just mark it as inactive which would stop people from wasting there time. I just find that rude.

After my first failed attempt at this cache I contacted the owner. I told him that I had found the red hand, read the hint and followed it’s instructions and had zero luck finding the cache. In the general vicinity of the cache there is a rock with a red hand painted on it so I asked the owner if he could give me a radius from the hand to check within. The owner responded and told me that I should find the cache within a 10 foot radius of the cache. Armed with this information I called up a couple friends and we made our way back to the cache site and tried again.

When you get to the cache site a ten foot radius from the red hand really doesn’t leave a whole lot of places to hide something as big as this cache is (an ammo box). The two most likely suspects are two bushes. We scoured those two areas and didn’t find a damn thing. Between the three of us we must have covered every square inch within twenty feet of the red hand. We finally gave up, convinced that the cache is no longer there.

I contacted the cache owner when I got home later that night and the cache has now been disabled. I really hope that it’s gone and we weren’t blind. I’d hate to send the owner of the cache over there and have him find it.

My brother and I headed into Moraga to pickup a couple of more. I was expecting company at my house and had to be home before too long. We headed off to find this one, which is another of Charley’s. It’s located in a nice quiet little park in Moraga. When we got there they were setting up for a wedding but it was still early in the setup so we weren’t going to disturb anyone. We followed our GPS’s to the location and found what appeared to be a very likely spot for it to be hidden in. We searched the area thoroughly and we kept coming up empty handed. We checked the hint on the cache and decided that we were definitely in the right spot and double checked all the nooks and crannies.

In the end we decided that the cache must be gone. My brother talked to Charley later that evening and he confirmed that we were definitely in the right spot. Looks like another cache is no longer where it’s supposed to be. That was the second one of the day.

The goal of the day was to go pick up Fractionated Morse but my brother and I needed a place to meet so we decided to do it right near this cache. My brother had already found this one but since we were so close I wanted to grab it.

Unfortunately, the cache was no longer there. Going there with someone who had already found it and not being able to find it pretty much confirmed to me that the cache is missing. Oh well, when I got home later that evening I contacted the cache owner and told them that the cache appears to be gone. They have yet to update the cache page so who knows what the status of the cache is now.