+Contagion Posted June 12, 2004 Share Posted June 12, 2004 So.. I was out hunting today and took a friend and his wife along to introduce them to the whole concept. We were having a great time finding (and in most cases NOT finding) the caches we decided to look for. We were in a nice wooded park in the area failing to find our target cache and were about to leave when I noticed that there was another cache in that same park, so we might as well take a quick look for it. I tend to be a bit unorganized about this process so I didn't actually know what the details were, whether it was a multi/micro etc. I tend not to download any loc files for caches that require pre-solving of puzzles though. Anyway, while searching about the area we find the first (we assume) stage of a cache but the coords for the next step are somewhere in the middle of the pacific, so suddenly I'm not so sure I didn't accidently download a geocache that requires some offset information. Out of curiosity, I punch in W 122 instead of W 152, and lo and behold, that's .13 miles away. Off we go... We find the cache (YAY!) and inside are two travel bugs (a first for me!). I sign the log and notice that it's completely empty. My first assumption is that somebody just replaced the log. Maybe as it was full or damaged by rain. So, here I am at the website, going to log that I found the cache and took one of the two travel bugs. Hmm.. the description for the cache I THOUGHT I found kind of matches the obvious theme of the cache I found but not quite. It doesn't list any travelbugs being in the cache, but then again maybe they just weren't logged yet. Wait.. this cache container described isn't what we found. Maybe they just updated the container to be more waterproof? I know! I'll go look at the history of the travel bug to find out what cache it was in! "This travel bug hasn't been activated" So, at best guess, I've managed to stumble across a previously unfound, UNLOGGED geocache (I'm also a premium member so presumably I see all the possible caches?), and now I have a travel bug that also hasn't been activated. The question is.. what do I do with such a travel bug? Do I hold on to it for a week or two and check every couple of days to see if the owner registers this travel bug or the cache become live? Do I go back to this cache and put the bug back again? Am I aloud to claim "First Find" if I find the cache before it's live? Quote Link to comment
nolenator Posted June 12, 2004 Share Posted June 12, 2004 Heck yeah FTF! That is serendipity my friend. I find it weird that somebody placed an unactivated TB in the cache though. When you log the number on the track travel bug page it came up unactivated? Hmm. Wait it out and maybe the cache will go active in the next day or so. When it does, log it and be proud. Peace, Nolenator Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted June 12, 2004 Share Posted June 12, 2004 Keep those coords. If you watch for that cache hopefully it will show up. If you signed the log with your geo name you are good to go. Sooner or later everyone will catch up to you. Quote Link to comment
+pdxmarathonman Posted June 12, 2004 Share Posted June 12, 2004 (edited) Worst case: It doesn't get approved because it is too close to another cache. I don't know how you'd find out if that is the case though. Hopefully it is just taking a little bit of time to approve due to the proximity to the other cache. In the meantime - you might want to go back and update the W152 in the the 1st stage to be the correct W122 Edited June 12, 2004 by pdxmarathonman Quote Link to comment
+Contagion Posted June 12, 2004 Author Share Posted June 12, 2004 Worst case: It doesn't get approved because it is too close to another cache. I don't know how you'd find out if that is the case though. Hopefully it is just taking a little bit of time to approve due to the proximity to the other cache.In the meantime - you might want to go back and update the W152 in the the 1st stage to be the correct W122 That's HIGHLY probably considering we were looking for (what appears to be) a completely different geocache at the time. I could go back and update the inaccurate coordinates, but thought it might be weird to mess with somebody elses hide. And since I don't know what cache this really is, I'm not sure if it's supposed to have some simple offset math. (And by simple I of course me, highly unlikely, overly obvious, offset math.) I thought maybe what I found wasn't actually the first stage and that this multi actually started somewhere else entirely. That's why I was trying to track it down using the travel bug to see where it thought it lived. I'm hoping this is just a brand new cache and it was started with two travel bugs in it. I'll just keep an eye on the travel bug and caches in my area to see if this pops up. I did sign the log as "Contagion" so the owner may eventually go check it out and drop me a message. If nothing happens in a week or two I'll probably take the bug back so the owner can reclaim it since this one may never make it live due to proximity and/or erroneous coords. I'll still be first in the log book. Quote Link to comment
+strikeforce1 Posted June 12, 2004 Share Posted June 12, 2004 We find the cache (YAY!) and inside are two travel bugs (a first for me!). I sign the log and notice that it's completely empty. My first assumption is that somebody just replaced the log. Maybe as it was full or damaged by rain. "This travel bug hasn't been activated" So, at best guess, I've managed to stumble across a previously unfound, UNLOGGED geocache (I'm also a premium member so presumably I see all the possible caches?), and now I have a travel bug that also hasn't been activated. The question is.. what do I do with such a travel bug? Do I hold on to it for a week or two and check every couple of days to see if the owner registers this travel bug or the cache become live? Do I go back to this cache and put the bug back again? Am I aloud to claim "First Find" if I find the cache before it's live? I had someone find one of my caches before it got approval as well. I polled the forum and gave FTFBA to that person, for finding it (FTFBA) first to find before approval. He found it, and logged the book, that's the rule. Nothing is stated about it being listed first. As for the TB - wait a week to see if it gets activated. If not contact GC and explain to them the non-active tb. Maybe they can track who to contact via email. BTW: Congrads on FTFBA and FTFTBBA ( first to find tb before activation) Cache On SF1 Quote Link to comment
MarcusArelius Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 This exact thing happened to me once before also! Weird. Quote Link to comment
+shunra Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 Was it an actual TB, or where does just the dog tags? Was there a code enclosed? It is possible that the dog tags were meant as a prize for the FTF, for YOU to activate. Quote Link to comment
+planetrobert Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 That happened to me here.... AND here too. Kinda weird. Quote Link to comment
+evergreenhiker! Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 Worst case: It doesn't get approved because it is too close to another cache. I don't know how you'd find out if that is the case though. Hopefully it is just taking a little bit of time to approve due to the proximity to the other cache.In the meantime - you might want to go back and update the W152 in the the 1st stage to be the correct W122 Yeah that happened to me. I got a FTF on a very tough micro in Redmond..saw it just as it came out. Well, I get home and can't find the the page! What happened was that it was accidentally submitted twice and two different approvers who shall stay unnamed had opposite decisions regarding it. It was too close to waypoint of another cache so it was correctly archived,but bummer....lost a FTF there. Quote Link to comment
+Contagion Posted June 13, 2004 Author Share Posted June 13, 2004 This exact thing happened to me once before also! Weird. OH, I need to go find that one since it's really close to my place. Actually, looking at most of your caches, I'm convinced you must live somewhere near me. Funny how you can start guessing where people live by the clustering of the caches they hide. Quote Link to comment
+GO West Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 Here's another thread on Accidentally Finding A Geocache Quote Link to comment
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