Surprise FTF

 I was caching in the Fort Wayne area while there for business.  I made a first visit ever to the town of Garrett and found a fun hide in a cacher's front yard.

I was really planning to visit Auburn for ice cream and a few caches, well mostly for ice cream.

Tasty Treats and  a toy Jeep to play in.

After the ice cream I headed to a nearby park.  There were a couple unfound caches there.  I found the first quickly than enjoyed a walk to the second hide.  I was surprised when I opened the cache and found a blank log book.

My first thought was owner maintenance.  Then I decided to check the phone for previous logs.  I was quite surprised to find this had been published two days earlier and was still unfound.  It's been an odd year for us with four previous FTF's.  One FTF in a year's caching is big for us.  Five is record setting.

The ducks were fun to see as well.

Woolly Webster

Geocachers see weird and unique things when playing the game.  That's part of the fun.  Other cachers bring you to odd and different things through caches placed nearby.  Woolly Webster was the first full-sized, painted buffalo I have seen in a library.

Another Well Done Library Cache

I was visiting Indiana for business and was happy for some after work caching.  One of my finds was a multi that ended in a library.  I reached the library about ten minutes before close.  The staff was super friendly and I was able to locate to container and be done before closing.  It was a fun way to end a short evening hunting caches.

Peace Love Trails

What a great name for a place to be caching.  In the real world this is the bike trail at Morsches Park in Columbia City, but the name can't help but bring a smile to your face.  The trails are peaceful and the caching is good.

Caches To Do: GC12FPA

I sometimes spot caches that go on my to-do list. There is no real explanation of why or how they make it, but they do.

Big Ball of Paint has now joined that list. The ball of paint is quirky enough to grab my attention and they sound like really nice people. I will have business reasons to travel I-69 between Fort Wayne and Indy so this seems like a great place to stop for a break. ;)

The Problem With Favorites

One third of all the finders of this cache gave it a favorite nod. It's very creative and very novel, but it doesn't meet the guidelines. If even a few of the finders take this buried cache idea back home and copy it in their area, that's a few more potential unhappy land managers. With logs like this it is bound to happen.

"Wow fricking awesome container had my hand on it several times before I decided to just check. You make the membership worth having for premium caches tftc."

"Omg nice hide."

"I'm in town from Boston for the holidays and finally had some time to go for a walk down the towpath this morning. What an awesome container."

Geocaches are never buried, neither partially nor completely. If one has to dig or create a hole in the ground when placing or finding a geocache, it is not allowed.
Geocaching.com Cache Listing Guidelines

It takes a profoundly creative person to make a super creative container that also meets the guidelines. Most of us aren't that creative. It is the reason why the best hiders are so special.

Lamp Posts

I hope these weren't damaged by geocachers...

It's ironic, the cache page for the one at the top includes the text, "The cache is not in the pole. Please keep your hands out of the electircal wires." The cache is a pill bottle below a rock at the base of the light. It was obvious from twenty feet away.

The lower one is in North Carolina. The cache isn't even in the damaged light pole.