I cracked open my emails to see a short list of newly published hides. I noticed one of them wasn’t that far from work so I figured it wouldn’t be that big a deal to head over and grab it. I didn’t have an FTF for the month of June (not that I actually care for that streak) so that would be an added bonus. I slipped out of work around quitting time and set off. I drove up to Pflugerville and then into a part of it that I rarely visit and turned into a neighborhood that felt vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I parked besides a trail entrance by a set of mailboxes. Again, it all seemed familiar. I walked the trail towards ground zero and saw a clutch of trees that again scratched at my memory. And when I got to the trees, I instinctively approached a tree stump to look for the cache. There was nothing there, but I just knew it should be. Had I found a cache there before? I must have. And yet, I couldn’t be sure. I had no direct memory of it, which is strange for me. While I’m not like some of the freakishly brained folks I know who can remember every cache they’ve ever found, I’m usually pretty good at it. Sometimes I need a prompt like looking at a map so I can envision a location, but I’ve often been able to mentally see the cache I found thereat. In fact, you’ve all read me talking about recycled locations on a few occasions. But this was different. I knew in my bones that I must have found a cache here before, but I had no memory of the finding and, other than my immediate attraction to the stump, no memory of a container. I guess I’ve gotten to that place that long time cachers arrive at where they can’t remember every cache. It was easier when I was at five hundred or a thousand, but now that I’m well over ten thousand? I pulled back and followed the pointer to GZ. There was a camo-taped pill bottle with a clip waiting for me at eye level. The log within was fresh and unsullied so I rectified that, claiming my first FTF and possibly only of the month. And yet I could not shake the feeling that somehow it was wrong…
Geocaching While Black 