Unfortunately the day has come when I no longer have Altoids gum tins left. They get too rusted to use with time, so I am replacing them as needed. This one is now a small preform.
December 11, 2003 was my first recorded DNF (for the Madison Scenic Park cache by DubyaDee.)
My first DNF was a few weeks earlier for the same cache, but I was so new to the game that I didn’t know about recording DNFs.
It gets worse. On January 1, 2004 (yes, my birthday) I stopped by the park after getting my first FTF, and still couldn’t find it even with a hint from DubyaDee.
My excuse? It was beginning to snow and I had a friend with me who was cold and bored.
I was not to be upstaged by those who had found it! A day later I made my fourth, and final attempt; I found the cache.
I have lost track of my DNFs by now. Sometimes it is easier to just record one than it is to keep hunting. Others times I feel frustrated about not finding a cache. A few times I have even considered giving up caching.
What is this crazy addiction of mine, anyway? The Madison Scenic Park cache was archived more than a year ago, and today I returned to the scene of my first caching frustrations and placed my own cache there in a slightly different part of the park. The kids should love it there.
June 20, 2007: the stage was been removed; cache is now ~60' uphill from that spot.
Later yet: a totally new location for the container, much closer to the original hide.
June 14 2019: now a hanger in a spruce tree.