My lament over a stolen geocache

Geocaching is about finding hidden containers, most definitely. But a huge aspect of the game is not finding geocaches, but hiding them. Creating a geocache can be as fun, or more fun than going on a hunt. You get to be creative, a tour-guide, cheeky, playful... there are no limits to what can be imagined. And simply creating the geocaches isn't the only fun about being a Cache Owner (CO), receiving messages on your caches is also good fun. Sometimes, people will post lengthy accounts of their hunt, other times they will go off on tangents, and commonly people will simply not write much at all. But getting those logs and interacting with geocachers finding your hides is fun. And there is a special excitement over a new hide. Waiting to see who might go after it first, and what they will have to say. I certainly felt this way about my most recent geocache, GC5Q84J, or Oak Ridge "Power" Trail. A few week-ends ago, I carefully put together the containers for a long multi cache that would take folks the entire length of the 8+ mile North Ridge Greenway Trail in Oak Ridge. I had a nice big final container, with some good swag that runners and mountain bikers should appreciate. Then all the other stages were preform tubes, painted green. I set off with all this stuff and had myself a good little run, stopping every 3/4 mile or so to hide a stage. It was wonderful, and the geocache got published pretty quickly too, which I was surprised about, since I figured I would have at least one proximity conflict somewhere along the trail. The cache was published 3/30/15, just two days after I placed it.

On March 31st, just a day after the cache was published, I checked on the final for the multi-cache while walking with my daughter to find a letterbox nearby. Everything was in good shape.

The next day, April 1st, I received an email from the first geocacher attempting the cache. This geocacher is relatively new to town, and had hiked the entire length of the trail looking for my cache. He had made a transcription mistake at stage 7, and thus couldn't find stage 8. I gave him the correct coordinates for stage , but also went out to check stage 7 just in case I had the wrong numbers written in it. Nope, it was correct, and the stage was right where it was supposed to be.

A few days later, April 5th, we were out of town, but I received an email from another geocacher who couldn't find the first stage. I thought this pretty odd, since the first stage should have been pretty easy to spot. I wrote her back telling her what the stage should have looked like and letting her know I'd check up on it. I wasn't seriously worried that it was gone, the cache hadn't been active for a week yet.

On, April 11th, I receive an email from the first geocacher to attempt the multi. He found the piece of concrete tube at stage 8, where I had hidden the preform, but there was no container to be found. He mentioned that the area looked pretty torn up, like perhaps an animal had been digging around there. Now this was sounding strange, so I decided to take the dog for a run to see what was up with the cache. We started at the end of the North Ridge Trail, and made our first stop the final container. Before I even got close I could tell something was wrong. The rotten tree that the final was hidden in had been ripped apart in many places. Wantonly destroyed is how I would put it. There was no sign of the Plano Ammo container and it was pretty clear to me that this was not the work of an animal, but a person.

I ran over to stage 8 and verified what had already been told to me. The container was gone. There wasn't even a sign of the fishing line that I had used to tie the container to a nearby vine. Everything was missing. I didn't have time to run the entire trail today, but instead drove to the start of the trail, since it is on my way home. After a short jog over to the coordinates for the first stage, my fears were confirmed. The stage was completely gone. This stage had a copious amount of fishing line securing it to a cradled hiding spot out of view. Since stage 2 was less than a half mile away, I decided to run to it as well. This stage was pretty far off the main trail tied to a rock placed in a hollow tree. And it was gone as well. not even the rock remained.

All the excitement I had about someone finding this cache was sucked out of me and replaced with anxiety. Someone has taken it upon themselves to remove my cache. Who would do this? Why would they do it? As I pondered these questions I jogged back to the car and passed by another geocache on the North Ridge Trail, North Ridge Loggers Camp. That cache was present and in good shape. I checked the logsheet on the off chance that someone would have written their name on it in the last few weeks. There was a name on it from last Sunday, but it was the geocacher that had emailed me about not finding the first stage.

Verified stages 3-4 were missing on April 13th. I also checked 4 other geocaches along the trail in this area and all 4 were in place. Those caches were closer to the trail and more obvious than mine. So it seems rather unlikely that whoever took my cache is targeting all geocaches along the trail. Just mine for some reason. Either just happens to be one they stumbled upon, or some other reason, I don't know yet.

On April 14th, I left a note at the stage one location, hidden in a spice-jar where the original stage was hidden. The note is my attempt to reach out to whoever took the cache. It reads:

Hello Stranger,

If you have found this note while looking for my geocache, GC5Q84J, Oak Ridge Power Trail, I’m sorry to say that the geocache is no longer active. Someone has removed all the stages. If you are the person who has removed the geocache, this note is for you. I do not know who you are or why you have removed my geocache, but I would like to reach out to you. I would love to talk or email with you to get your opinions and thoughts on why this geocache should not have been placed here. You can reach me at ...[phone and email]. I hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Aaron (aka Fugads)

I'm not very optimistic that I will get a response, but I thought it was worth a shot. EDIT: I checked back on this note on May 22 and it was gone. My hunch is whoever took the rest of the cache took this note too, and never bothered contacting me. Oh well, it was worth a try.

I verified stages 5-7 were missing on April 16th. I also checked two other geocaches in rock nooks along the trail, both of which were present. At this point I've verified all stages are gone and am left to decide whether to try to replace the cache, or abandon the idea. I really like this kind of multi cache, but it also seems like the kind of cache that will require a lot of maintenance checks. I did my best to design the hides that they would last a long time, tethering all of them with sturdy fishing line, and I think if it weren't for someone cutting them out, this method would have worked pretty well. Unfortunately, with someone taking an issue with me placing a cache on this trail, there is really not a whole lot I could do. And even trying something else might just inflame this person more. So right now I am leaning towards archival.

Pictures of the cache stages

Since all the original hides are gone and replacing them i the same locations would be foolish, I might as well post some pictures of how the hides looked so I can remember how this cache was designed. Sorry, there is no picture of stage 6, I must have forgotten to snap one.

Stage 1: "Cradeled" underneath a dead tree

Stage 2: Tied to a rock and dangling in a hollow tree stump

Stage 3: Hard to see, but tied off to part of the hollow tree and dangling inside it.

Stage 4: Maybe the most obvious, but it is well back away from the trail and facing away from the trail. 

Stage 5: Tied to a low horizontal log and dangling behind a larger dead tree, again, well back from the trail and out of sight.

Stage 7: Another dangling hide inside a hollow tree.

Stage 8: Underneath the piece of concrete tube and tethered to the vine with fishing line.

Final Hide: This log was completely ripped apart when I visited last.

Final hide close-up.

Summary

A small recap of the facts:

• Cache was in place on April 1st.
• Stage one reported not found April 5th.
• Final stage and some others verified missing April 11th.
• All stages verified missing with fishing line tethers cut and all signs of cache placement erased.
• All other geocaches along the same trail as this hide were verified to still be in place.,

It seems clear to me from these facts that the cache was removed between April 1st and April 5th. Whoever removed the cache was thorough in removing all evidence of each stage. Also, whoever removed this multi-cache walked right by several other caches along the trail and left them alone. This indicates that the person was only going after my cache and is either intentional ignoring the other caches along the trail, or is unaware of them. Base don this I find it unlikely that this person is using www.geocaching.com to get information about geocaches along the trail, and instead stumbled upon the first stage of my cache and took it upon themselves to remove the whole thing. This person most likely enjoys hiking and wild areas and may have been offended that a geocacher would place so much "litter" on their trail.