Good morning everyone. Welcome to blog #5. Before I get started with this week's topic, I want to roll out a new feature to my blog; Geocaching fun facts. Not to be confused with Fun with Flags. This week's fun fact is oldest active caches. The oldest active traditional cache inside the city limits of Winnipeg is "Bison Castle Cache" GCJAG7, hidden May 28, 2004. Oldest active traditional cache in Manitoba is "C1BUA - cache 1n a builtup area"" GC21C and can be found in the town of Killarney. It was placed on February 5, 2001. I found this one in August, 2015 on a day trip with another geocacher, Auntie Mo. I got caught with my hand in the cache.
Now for this week's topic, I'll be discussing the coveted, most sought after prize of all geocaching. The FTF or First to Find. Bragging rights to being the first one to find a newly published cache. There are a select bunch or individuals that will drive great distances to claim that right. I have been fortunate enough to have 13 FTFs so far. Having put out caches, there are also those who have been first to find mine.
I remember my very first FTF. There was another geocache not far from my house when I first started geocaching. That particular cache was missing. I knew a neighbour who was a geocacher was watching and waiting for that missing cache to be archived so he could hide one of his there. It got archived, and knowing my luck, the new cache will be published while I'm at work (most of them do). I had taken a day off from work to attend parent/teacher for both of my boys. There was a gap in between meeting so we were relaxing at home. Notification came in. OMG!! I quickly put on my runners and jacket, shouted out to my then wife that I was rushing out for a bit, and I was off. I arrived and began to quickly search. A couple of things I realized at that moment. I should tie up my runners and maybe I should have put boots on instead. The snow was deep that winter and I had to trek into the deep snow to find the cache. I did find it and claimed my very first FTF. A glorious moment. I noticed that I had left the perfect geo-trail to the cache. That simply won't do. Since I had shoes full of snow, my cotton cargo pants that I was wearing that are really bad for soaking in water and freezing were already soaked from the knees down, I opted to go for a romp in the snow to make more tracks and throw off future finders. I would find out later that the next person to come along would be Marco Island Girl and she had fun romping through the deep snow.
There is a local cacher, a teenager as I would find out later, that would hide geocaches, archive them and hide another basically in the same place. Over time, his containers got better. The effort was there for sure. I was lucky to get two FTFs from his caches. One, I was on vacay from work and getting ready to pick up my oldest, Duesenberg 2002, from school and taking him out for a birthday lunch. A brand new cache came out as I was walking out the door and it's on the way. Picked up d-2002, and stopped at GZ. We made the find and headed off to lunch. That cache lasted all of 5 days before going missing. Another of his hides was published while I was shopping at Wal-Mart. I finished what I was doing, paid for my stuff and headed over, expecting FTF to be gone. On arrival, I found another cacher, TSK at GZ, but unable to do a proper search due to muggles close by. Once they left, I mentioned that there use to be another cache hidden here by the same person and I had found that one right here (pointing to a spot in the juniper bush). Sure enough, that's where the new cache was.
One of my more memorable FTFs came last year after a Meet and Greet event, hosted by Titansfan from Tennessee, who came to Winnipeg to watch his Nashville Predators play the Winnipeg Jets. A new puzzle cache came out as the last of us were leaving the event. Six geocachers (JB, Semb, Jesterphox, Hakliva, Tallon Hunter and myself) in five cars racing 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) to the parking area for the puzzle. To me, it reminds me of the 1976 movie, Gumball Rally or the 1981 movie, Cannonball Run. Cars racing frantically to get to the finish line. It was a unique puzzle and we did get the FTF as a group effort.
One other FTF I got was very unexpected. I had driven South of Winnipeg, closer to the Canadian/American border and was working a power trail. The road went from gravel, to dirt, to grass. This was when the old Geocaching app would say when the cache was last found. As I moved along from cache to cache, the next one didn't have a last found. Wha...??? A quick check of logs showed one note saying the roads were muddy and no attempt was made. Road looked good so off I went. Another FTF for me.
I had hid a puzzle cache behind my house with the purpose of catching other geocachers looking for the container. My then wife didn't know about this until after we separated. She knows now and if she sees you looking, she'll tell you where it is. I had gone to bed one evening, as I had work the next day. The cache hadn't been published yet. Next morning, I'm checking my e-mail and I'm seeing that my cache had been found. Huh?? I scroll down and there's the notification saying it's been published. FTF was grabbed at 1:30am by JB and Jean Deniche. Another puzzle cache of mine was published while I was at work. The final was on my route home. I wasn't aware that it was published, but as I drove by, I spotted JB looking at his GPSr. He got FTF for that one too.
Sometimes the chase for the FTF turns into an impromptu meet up event. A recently published cache had 6 geocachers searching for that FTF. All came away with a DNF. The cache had been published before the container was in place. I hope to be adding to my FTF totals really soon.
That's it for this week. Until next week, peace out, enjoy, and remember, geocaching is meant to be fun. :)
I remember my very first FTF. There was another geocache not far from my house when I first started geocaching. That particular cache was missing. I knew a neighbour who was a geocacher was watching and waiting for that missing cache to be archived so he could hide one of his there. It got archived, and knowing my luck, the new cache will be published while I'm at work (most of them do). I had taken a day off from work to attend parent/teacher for both of my boys. There was a gap in between meeting so we were relaxing at home. Notification came in. OMG!! I quickly put on my runners and jacket, shouted out to my then wife that I was rushing out for a bit, and I was off. I arrived and began to quickly search. A couple of things I realized at that moment. I should tie up my runners and maybe I should have put boots on instead. The snow was deep that winter and I had to trek into the deep snow to find the cache. I did find it and claimed my very first FTF. A glorious moment. I noticed that I had left the perfect geo-trail to the cache. That simply won't do. Since I had shoes full of snow, my cotton cargo pants that I was wearing that are really bad for soaking in water and freezing were already soaked from the knees down, I opted to go for a romp in the snow to make more tracks and throw off future finders. I would find out later that the next person to come along would be Marco Island Girl and she had fun romping through the deep snow.
There is a local cacher, a teenager as I would find out later, that would hide geocaches, archive them and hide another basically in the same place. Over time, his containers got better. The effort was there for sure. I was lucky to get two FTFs from his caches. One, I was on vacay from work and getting ready to pick up my oldest, Duesenberg 2002, from school and taking him out for a birthday lunch. A brand new cache came out as I was walking out the door and it's on the way. Picked up d-2002, and stopped at GZ. We made the find and headed off to lunch. That cache lasted all of 5 days before going missing. Another of his hides was published while I was shopping at Wal-Mart. I finished what I was doing, paid for my stuff and headed over, expecting FTF to be gone. On arrival, I found another cacher, TSK at GZ, but unable to do a proper search due to muggles close by. Once they left, I mentioned that there use to be another cache hidden here by the same person and I had found that one right here (pointing to a spot in the juniper bush). Sure enough, that's where the new cache was.
One of my more memorable FTFs came last year after a Meet and Greet event, hosted by Titansfan from Tennessee, who came to Winnipeg to watch his Nashville Predators play the Winnipeg Jets. A new puzzle cache came out as the last of us were leaving the event. Six geocachers (JB, Semb, Jesterphox, Hakliva, Tallon Hunter and myself) in five cars racing 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) to the parking area for the puzzle. To me, it reminds me of the 1976 movie, Gumball Rally or the 1981 movie, Cannonball Run. Cars racing frantically to get to the finish line. It was a unique puzzle and we did get the FTF as a group effort.
One other FTF I got was very unexpected. I had driven South of Winnipeg, closer to the Canadian/American border and was working a power trail. The road went from gravel, to dirt, to grass. This was when the old Geocaching app would say when the cache was last found. As I moved along from cache to cache, the next one didn't have a last found. Wha...??? A quick check of logs showed one note saying the roads were muddy and no attempt was made. Road looked good so off I went. Another FTF for me.
I had hid a puzzle cache behind my house with the purpose of catching other geocachers looking for the container. My then wife didn't know about this until after we separated. She knows now and if she sees you looking, she'll tell you where it is. I had gone to bed one evening, as I had work the next day. The cache hadn't been published yet. Next morning, I'm checking my e-mail and I'm seeing that my cache had been found. Huh?? I scroll down and there's the notification saying it's been published. FTF was grabbed at 1:30am by JB and Jean Deniche. Another puzzle cache of mine was published while I was at work. The final was on my route home. I wasn't aware that it was published, but as I drove by, I spotted JB looking at his GPSr. He got FTF for that one too.
Sometimes the chase for the FTF turns into an impromptu meet up event. A recently published cache had 6 geocachers searching for that FTF. All came away with a DNF. The cache had been published before the container was in place. I hope to be adding to my FTF totals really soon.
That's it for this week. Until next week, peace out, enjoy, and remember, geocaching is meant to be fun. :)
LMAO oh the FTFs... that group one was fun... good thing there were lots of us too... took some figuring out and putting heads together!
ReplyDelete