Coffee Peddlers lonely caches...1 down, 2 to go

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Bon Echo
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Coffee Peddlers lonely caches...1 down, 2 to go

Post by Bon Echo » Tue Dec 29, 2015 3:02 pm

Coffee Peddlers placed three caches around London in 2011. None of the three have even been logged on OCNA. I finally stopped by to find one on Christmas Eve. being the skeptic that I am, I had no expectations that the cache would be there. from the listing I could guess that the cache was located on the ground, on a hill. Seemed to me like a good candidate for tumbling down the hill and being lost. Glad to say i was wrong, and the cache was right where it was supposed to be. what's more, it actually was found last year. Here's my log (if you want to see photos, read the log at
http://opencaching.ca/viewlogs.php?logid=6835

I don't know what's worse: the fact that this is the first log to this cache in the 1565 days since this cache was first placed by the founder of OpenCaching Canada (if I understand correctly the history of this site)....or the fact that we are not actually the first to find!

On to my story: the three Coffee Peddlers cachers around London have been on my to do list for some time, since really getting into OCNA earlier this year. We stop in, or pass through London a number of times each year. Today it was the annual trip to pick up a family member in London for Christmas, and a little extra time combined with record-breaking warm temps for Christmas Eve meant a perfect time to stop for one of those caches. It was a toss up between this one or the River View cache. This cache was less out-of-the-way and sounded easier to reach, but I was doubtful about finding it given the clue and elapsed time since last heard from. So I was planning to do the other one, but in the end we found ourselves west of London.

Upon arriving on scene and taking a look at the area, I was convinced the cache was gone. There was a bunch of small shrubby trees and a lot of broken and buried concrete on steep slope. Signs of fresh digging by some critter. No where to tuck a cache into. We tried approaching "GZ" from several angles and just couldn't see anywhere to securely hide a cache. Surely the cache had tumbled down the hill long ago, perhaps knocked down the hill by some animal or more likely pushed down the hill by the heavy snowfall of the last couple winters. And soon the kids lost interest in the search and were more interested in getting mud all over their clothes down near the river. I stood near GZ, just looking but not really seeing anywhere to hide a cache. And that when I notice the cache, sitting there, right there in the open, painted just the right shade of brown to match the dirt of the hill, partially covered in leaves...and in really great condition. Opened it up to see contents in great shape, dry, and the log sheet...signed? Well, not exactly signed, but dated: "Found on Oct 25, 2014" it read. Found? Found! By who? My guess is it was just found by accident, and the finder followed the instructions and wrote that on the log sheet.


This was the only geocache we found today (we also found two letterboxes on-route to London), passing by a few thousand groundspeak caches along the way. It's just not the same. It's a whole different game, almost. Geocaching is fun because you find something hiding, something everyone else overlooks but you know about the secret hiding place. Except hundreds of other cachers in the area also know about it, the site is visited many times each month, there's a well-worn trail...found it - surprised? Not really. But when you get to find a cache that few care to find, and know one really knows if it's going to even be there - it's just different. So thanks London-area cachers for ignoring this one. Merry Christmas.

Looking forward to those other two Coffee Peddlers caches! Maybe they're still there, maybe their gone. But it's worth the hunt. Because it's not about the numbers.

Mr.Yuck
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Re: Coffee Peddlers lonely caches...1 down, 2 to go

Post by Mr.Yuck » Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:55 pm

Yeah, those caches never being logged online is embarrassing. Despite my proximity, I'll bet I've only been in the London area twice in my whole life. No, I'll not be doing "The London Loop", even though one of them was named after me. :lol:

Someone recently logged one of 3 opencaches placed in Rhode Island in 2011. Now only one is unfound. In my experience around Buffalo, N.Y., which is one of our highest density areas, I've often found non-online loggers in the logbooks. Too many times to think it's Geocachers who just happen to stumble on an unknown to them cache.

Best of luck with the other two. I see one is quite west of London. BTW, I too love finding lonely alt site caches, be they ours, TC's or even Navicaches.
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Bon Echo
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Re: Coffee Peddlers lonely caches...1 down, 2 to go

Post by Bon Echo » Mon Dec 12, 2016 1:59 pm

Wow, a long-time geocacher (2003) in London just signed up to OCNA (actually he signed up to TC and I encouraged him to also check out OCNA - maybe he was going to anyway but I'm taking the credit :D ). He signed up and in one day knocks off simrebels "new" webcam AND finds one of the two unfound Coffee Peddler caches - 5.5 years after it was published!:
http://opencaching.us/viewcache.php?cacheid=786

So that leaves one: Battle of Longwoods. I actually stopped by there in September while driving home from a camping trip. Didn't read the description until I reached the parking area. Nope - had already stopped to do TC virtual and a couple other interesting stops and no way were the rest of the "passengers" willing to wait half and hour (probably double that) while I bushwacked to this cache. Our 3 hour drive home was already 4 hours and we weren't even half way.....

Welcome aboard Norshley - hope you will hide some more OCNA caches around London.

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