Best of 2014: Gadget Cache

GC333J2 – Gadget Cache
Hidden by WVTim & WVGrammy (maintained by GR8Caches)
167 Favorite Posts
Jefferson County, West Virginia
Found on November 8, 2014

My husband loathes multi-stage caches. He hates them. Frankly, he moans and groans if I propose we seek almost anything other than traditional caches (he’s fine with some virtuals as well as mystery caches if they are puzzles that I have already solved without his involvement). Sometimes I see his point of view. There are some very poorly arranged multi-stage caches out there. However, Gadget Cache stands as an example of an excellent multi-cache as well as three unique cache containers.

The first characteristic that makes it an excellently designed cache is that the cache page is extremely descriptive: it gives you a very clear idea of the experience you are in for. The page explains the number of stages, the distance between each of the stages, and it tells you where to park your car.

Spoilers Follow. This is your first and final warning.

The posted coordinates take you to a device that catapults the container with coordinates to the second stage out of it with a spring. How cute! Definitely a unique take on the more typical hanging bison tubes or pill bottles in a pile of rocks.

The second stage was even more unique and has since been replicated in another WVTim cache that is part of the previously discussed Gadgets of Berkeley County GeoTrail. This stage featured a scent board. That is, a board with a number of vials on it, each one containing a scent. Each scent is associated with a number. Then the cacher is given a list of scents to complete the coordinates for the third stage. WVTim describes some of the process of how this board is constructed on his blog, Unique Geocaches.

We made one minor mistake in calculated the coordinates for the final stage. After combing through the area the coordinates we calculated took us to, our team of three split up. The guys went back to the scent board and I had another hunch. This cache had been found earlier in the day and the brush in the area was on the high side. I followed the footsteps of the previous finders, that is, where the brush had been beat down, I went. Bingo!

When I found the cache it was a small container wedged into a small hole on the underside of a log. Something I have seen in many caches, ranging from British Columbia to Maryland. What really made me smile was the name I saw on the log immediately before I wrote in my own: 4LostMarbles! These were the same folks we ran into earlier in the day when we were caching at WVTim’s church and when we found Under a Lamp Post.

As I signed the log, I heard the guys yell, they had found the mistake in their coordinates. In a minute or two they joined me at the final stage of the cache. To complete all three stages, despite the confusion, took less than 15 minutes, yet it really was one of the more memorable finds of the day and certainly of the year.