It Never Fails

I walked down the street, heading for my daily cache and reading the description. The sidewalk was leading to an entrance sign for a subdivision, a nice wide-open canvas to hide something. Reading nothing of import in the description, I read the hint as well. “Experienced geocachers should have a good idea.” I like to think I’m experienced, so I considered myself up to the task. To be fair, though, I wasn’t entirely convinced by that notion. I had just failed to find a simple cache that has been eluding me for years. That one’s a D1.5/T1.5, most recently found a week ago by a cacher with four finds. As you can imagine, it has been a thorn in my side for years, and with my latest failure, my confidence was shaken. Another simple cache should have done the trick, yes?

My search began in earnest at a small cluster of electrical equipment. But there was nothing magnetic to be found. I moved to the sign itself, a wooden facade hanging on iron supports mounted in brick pillars. I began looking for holes in the pillars, to no effect. I started tracing the iron supports for anything connected magnetically or otherwise. The facade offered no clues, though one possible niche was the home of a developing wasp’s nest. From one end to the other, I sought my quarry out. When I didn’t find it, I went to the other side of the sign and repeated the process, again to no avail. A sturdy tree branch extended over the sign as well. I didn’t think the Terrain rating warranted the tree, but it was possible. I looked in the leaves but again came up with a goose egg. I came up empty.

The thing that makes a hero is not being the strongest or the smartest. What makes a hero is that they have friends who will stand by them and come to their aid. So I didn’t use my phone to route to the cache. I used my phone to, you know, make a phone call. My buddies, The Outlaw and Moosiegirl, had found it a few weeks ago, so I gave them a call. It rang and rang, and as I waited, I looked up at the electrical boxes again. I noticed caps on the posts. I reached up and touched a cap. The cap moved in my hands as the phone connected and The Outlaw answered. As always, it never fails. The second you phone a friend, you find the cache you called about.