Always Blame The Bear
While I was in Flagstaff camping, I got to check up on all the caches I placed last August. I was really excited to see how they had fared after a winter of snow, wind, and rain.
I haven’t hid that many caches (13) so I’m not really sure how often I needed to check on them. The ones in Flagstaff are kind of tricky, since I live about 2 hours from them; not really practical to scoot over to check after the first DNF!
The first cache we checked on was The Quiet Zone. This cache is a favorite of mine, but I was concerned about the container; the prior three people searching for it had been DNF. As I drew closer to the cache, it was clear to see what had happened.
A bear had made off with the cache!
I found a better location and replaced the container. I was rather disappointed that the original contents had disappeared as well but there was no way I was going to argue with the bear!
The other caches: Mom’s Birthday, Cousin Trees, No Cows Here, The Groaning Gate, and Mud Bug Haven, all fared fine. All the caches were in good order with dry contents and plenty of swag.
But I did have to wonder about No Cows Here. It’s just off a trail bordered with tall Ponderosa pine trees. It is just off a main road so a lot of people look for it. But, for some reason, No Cows Here gets a fair share of DNF. Now, I’m pretty sure that has to do with bounce (the GPS signal gets interference from the trees) but I don’t feel I need to point that out. The cache seems so obvious to me — hidden but under a rock pile that just seems to scream: Here’s the cache!

See where The Queen Mother’s walking stick is pointed? Yeah, the cache is under that huge rock! Geosense or give-it-away hint?
So, what’s your take? Post a hint that the trees might interfere or leave it as is and trust to people’s geosense?
And for Cousin Trees, I changed the altitude of the cache just a bit. (I moved the cache from UNDER the tree to being IN the tree.)
Do you think that I need to explain that in the hint? I think saying something like “YBBX HC!” would be too much of a giveaway. What do you think?
To decrypt that hint, use Geocaching.com’s decryption key.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M
————————————————–
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
(letter above equals below, and vice versa)
Readers Weigh In:
- How often do you check on the caches that you’ve hid?
- Do you rely on people’s geosense or do you try to make your hints obvious?
- Do you like hints that say if the cache is under something? (A rock, tree, etc) What about hints that say the cache is in a tree?
Find Your Geocache
June 29, 2010 @ 8:39 pm
[…] Always Blame The Bear […]
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July 3, 2010 @ 6:55 am
I like to play on words with hints, and sometimes make them a little cryptic or give them an idea when they read it, but when they get there realize it means something else.
I have one hidden by a big old building and the clue is “right under the “cornerstone””. When they get there they may initially look around for the cornerstone of the building, but their GPSr will take them to the corner of a narrow rectangular garden space between sidewalk and building with a small broken piece of concrete there, and the cache under it.
Most of my hints are of this fashion, where they may not see the real meaning until they get there. Most all my urban caches I want to be very obvious when they get there as I don’t want them conspicuously searching for something in a public area. Instead I stress that the fun and challenge is to try to retrieve the cache without people nearby paying any attention to what they are doing.
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Geocaching Maintenance
July 19, 2011 @ 8:37 pm
[…] the case of The Quiet Zone GC1X2F5 two years ago a BEAR made off with the cache. Or at least the cache disappeared over the winter. Since I live 200 miles away, I temporarily […]
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