Let me tell you an amazing tale. It's especially incredible because it's true. Several years back, my (now) wife and I decided to hide our first geocache. So we went off into the woods of Lamoreaux Park with a bucket of swag, a shovel, and a piece of plywood. Not reading the rules of the game first (or understanding the potential flood levels), we chose a random spot in the woods, got the coords, dug a hole, and threw the bucket in. Then we tossed the plywood over it and covered it with a thin layer of dirt and leaves. Right on, good to go! Needless to say, it broke the rules of the game and was declined publication. We were informed that you can't bury caches, and also they must be .1 from any existing cache. My plan was to go re-hide it, but then the snow fell, so I figured I'd wait. Spring came and high waters took it away. When I went back, it was gone as it had floated off somewhere. Bummer, all we did was essentially dump garbage into the river valley.
Fast forward a couple of years to recently. I'm back in the woods scoping out some new cache locations, when I just happened to spy a bucket. Sure enough, it was the old cache! It had returned to me, just like the prodigal son. Or maybe I was the son of the cache. Either way, it was hundreds of feet from where I left it, and all the contents were inside. The log book was even sort of dry, but musty. So I took it home, cleaned it back up, and hid it again roughly where I found it. Now it won't float off, however.
Ever since we lost it the first time, I've felt guilty and pick up a couple of pieces of trash every time I walk through the park. Maybe we all should. Good luck!