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This one should be called the Robert Frost Cache:
“Something there is that doesn't love a cache...”
It started months ago, with an idea for our first cache – the name was almost the first step. Here's what it was supposed to mean:
1 – Our first cache, ever. Not, as it turned out, the case.
Won – the container and most of the swag was won by TeamGAWK at the 11-11-11 event. Thanks, Monet! Still the case.
1 – Published on TeamGAWK's first anniversary of caching, March 12, 2012. Not, as it turned out, the case.
Oy! This was a gnarly one, and the root of the problem was technology. Or human error. Or – is there a difference?
Setting out a cache for SonW's 18th birthday was too good a present to miss, so we did it, even though that one, not this one, turned out to be our first cache. The next day, our only GPS device was run over on the Otsdowa (OK, OK, it was DadG who left it on the hood of the car and drove away). So, no cache til we got a replacement GPS. No cache on March 12. But no cache for a while, because we were in the midst of negotiations with Mega Monster Wireless Company for a new family plan and four new phones. That took forever, especially when MomA decided one phone should be a smartphone, our first, so we could use it for geocaching (cheaper than buying the really good GPS we wanted).
So – the smartphone comes. Now – how do we use it for geocaching? Now, really – how wood you figure that out, if you were under the same constraints? First you figure out that geocaching.com is a useless resource because, according to the staff, there's no manual. Then you figure out that their Android app DOESN'T SET AND RETRIEVE WAYPOINTS!!!, and you figure that out after days of e-mailing Seattle back and forth. What?! Using the Geocaching Source's software, you can't set out caches, or find puzzle or multi caches? That's right, and we have the apologetic e-mail from Seattle to prove it. We were stumped, and things were not looking up.
So – now you're in the wonderful world of independent apps. Apparently, there are many that will lead you to the nearest latte, and many others that will compute your azimuth to the millionth decimal of pi, but very few (none?) that will actually let you set (or enter) and retrieve waypoints without a PhD.
Anyway, enough grousing about the shady world of geocaching apps. We finally cobbled together a number of apps and got this one set out. After a rocky start, we were off to branch out into the world of cache owning.
Oh, but wait! The best is at the end! We found the perfect place for a cache – the best hiding place we'd seen for a very long time. DadG reached in to clear out the leaves – and found a small lock 'n' lock container with a complete cache in it, including some nice swag, a blank log, and lots of water – the apparently never-published Merlin Madness II. As far as any of y'all know, is this the first time ever a team has found an unpublished cache they weren't looking for and didn't know was there? Woo, hooo! First to... what? We e-mailed the owners, didn't hear back, and so left it there, as an extra bonus for you hard-working cachers. So we used the second-best place.
Oh, and then our GPS couldn't find satellites because it was cloudy, or Tuesday, or something, so we had to come back on a sunny day that wasn't Tuesday, and it's finally ready.
The 1-Won-1 Cache is on a small, odd plot of land that, according to the tax maps, is owned by Otsego County. This is appropriate because 67% of TeamGAWK works for Otsego County. When you get there, you'll see that it's a Wildlife Safety Zone. We found no wildlife relaxing there, safe for the moment from the stressful, carnivorous world, but maybe you will.
For the FTF: A couple of pieces of paper with a GAWKeye eyeball (and some other stuff) engraved on them, and in addition to those 1s, you also might have won.
Bonus: not far away is a spectacular view of Hartwick College, and it's really beautiful in the morning.
Park at: N 42° 27.720 W 075° 03.194 (Wilber Park pavilion – upper level). Please don't park anywhere in the apartment complex.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va gur jbeqf bs Ze. Fpvrapr (frr: “Yrtraq bs gur Pubccre”): “Uvagf? Lbh jnag uvagf? Lbh'ir nyernql tbg gjb bs gurz! Naq abj lbh'ir tbg guerr!” (naq va guvf pnfr, gur svefg gjb ner va gur fnzr fragrapr)