Vindicating Myself

I didn’t expect my cache yesterday to be emotionally fulfilling, but fulfilling it was. When I pulled up my map, I saw a lot of Unknown caches looking back at me, since I had already grabbed most of the Traditionals in the area. My eye was immediately drawn to the little frown on my screen. A number of years ago, I saw a cache that hadn’t been found in three years and decided to try to solve its puzzle. Unfortunately, the puzzle was some computer code with annotations. Fortunately, I know a lot of programmers. I gave it to one of them, and after a little parsing and tweaking based on the annotations, he was able to compile it, revealing where the cache was located. I went to GZ one night and searched in vain. There was no container like the one the long-missing CO described in pretty specific detail. A few days later, another cacher replaced the container, and it has been found many times since, but I haven’t gone back for it. While I’m not averse to throwdowns, I’m no fan of zombie caches, either. One day I would go get it, but not that day. I followed the map to the next closest cache, placed in honor of the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico. I had tried for it once before years ago but was discouraged by the thorny purchase. I was a proverbial noob back then, so I decided to give it another try now that many folks I know had found it relatively recently. I drove over to where it was but was discouraged by the sight of muggles parked next to GZ, cleaning out their truck and camper. That didn’t feel like the time to get up to “suspicious” activities. I looked at the map again. I wasn’t far from a third Unknown that I had failed to find years ago. I hadn’t actually failed to find it. I failed to figure out how to solve the puzzle involved. But with years more experience, it was child’s play to tease out the appropriate clues based on (of all things) various cuts of diamonds. I drove over to its park, a place I have visited many times before on caching business, and took a short walk down a worn trail to a cedar tree with a camo pill bottle at its base.

I, like many other cachers, have a plethora of DNFs in my wake. Some of them were just plain hard to find. Some of them were based on my mistakes. Some I’ll never have a chance to find again, either having been archived or being too far away. But sometimes those that have thwarted me in the past come to be metaphorically trampled beneath my metaphorically sandaled feet. Those are always so sweet. Perhaps not as sweet as finding a high Difficulty or completing a long challenge, of course, but sweet nonetheless.