Core Memory Unlocked

A couple of days ago, I was reading something in the Geocaching subreddit about a cacher who saw a signature on a cache log from a muggle who had no earthly idea what they had found. Of course, there was a little commentary about muggles, but I was reminded of something that happened to me in my early days of caching.

Back in the heady days of 2018, after having hidden my first cache (which, amazingly enough, is still active), I sought to hide a second cache in downtown Austin. The location I chose for it was the newly installed, mostly iron patio of a bodega on the city’s main street (and no, it is not Main Street). I spent days scoping out the location so I could figure out the best time to make a hide at literal muggle central. Eventually, I realized that no day would be the right time, only one night. So, on the appointed night, probably around midnight, I parked by the patio on the lifeless street and found the perfect place to leave an Altoids tin with magnets inside. I attached it to the supports for one of the tables, hidden under one of the immovable benches, and then made my way back home. The next day, I made my cache page for my hide and submitted it for approval.

It was not approved. It was within a few hundred feet of a Mystery cache I would never find, though I would one day start on the path. Dejected, I knew I should go and collect the now-useless container. I waited a few more days and then returned to the patio on another late night and plucked it out. I immediately noticed it didn’t feel or sound right, so I popped it open. I had originally placed two uni-coins and a log with the message “Welcome to this geocache! Who are you?” When I opened it, I found a pair of beaded earrings and the log. On the log, written in blue highlighter: “I dont Play geocash but I Found this.”

We spend a lot of time as cachers avoiding or otherwise dealing with muggles. They’re not part of our world, so they sometimes find us strange or weird for our chosen passion. But some of them get it. At least one of them did. I don’t know who you are or were, Cat. The odds you remember having done any of this are low. The odds that you’ll read this are beyond astronomical. But after all these years, I still remember. And after all these years, I still have your note.