On Sunday evening the cache owner of the Bread Crumb Series received 3 emails from me. The first one was was sent using the contact form on geocaching.com to let him know that we couldn’t make out the coordinate snippet in #3:
My wife and I re-did the Bread Crumb Series this morning (explanation coming via a log later) and the coords on #3 are totally unreadable, so all we have for the North Augusta final are:
N33? _ _.006
W081? _ _.892
Could you fill us in on what the correct minutes are?Thanks, Brian
P.S. The black paint on the #3 container is flaking off in your hands when you hold it. #6 was full of water, but the log was OK in its baggie. We cleaned out the the soggy stuff and dried off the unaffected items.
The next one he would have got would have been the automatic email generated as a cache owner when ever anyone logs a Found or DNF on one of his caches. This is what I wrote in the log for the Greenwood final:
We did the bread crumb series in November and when we got to the final location in Greenwood it was muggle city. We came back 2 months later (New Years Day actually), had the place to ourselves and made the find. Didn’t know it had a GC number that could be logged on geocaching.com. We thought that was kind of weird, but we were new enough to geocaching that we figured sometimes that happens with these bonus caches. After all it is not about the numbers, it is about the hunt. Right?;)
Last week, while researching caches to do along the North Augusta Greenway, I found one at the far end from where we have been looking called, End of the trail ‘North Augusta’, and right there in the description it said: “This is the North Augusta end cache for my bread crumbs series # 1-6. You need the clues from each of the containers in that series to hunt this cache and the one in Greenwood.”
HUH!?!? So I searched in Greenwood for something called “End of the trail” and sure enough there is the other one….you do get credit for finding the final caches in the Bread Crumb series. We’ve been robbed! We have more finds than we thunk!
So today, because we had tossed out the coordinates for this hide (having already found it), we headed to Greenwood re finding all 6 of the Bread Crumb series on our way. When we arrived at GZ we had the place to ourselves again and after a spider web busting walk, made the grab for the second time in 6 months. Opened it up expecting to look back and see our siggy, but a new log sheet was started in February. With no proof we had actually been here back in January, I signed the new one with today’s date. Which, when you think about it, works out OK because now I can log it online today as well.
After I logged the find, I used the contact form again to make a couple suggestions that might be helpful to people like me in finding out the names of the two final caches:
Maybe it is just us because we were are sort of new when we first ran into the Bread Crumbs, but we didn’t know that the two finals for the series had GC numbers and were loggable on geocaching.com.
It might be helpful if you plugged them (with name & GC#) in the descriptions of the 6 bread crumbs caches like you do for your other caches along the way.
I don’t know if you can rename an already published cache, but it would help them turn up in a keyword search on geocaching.com if you could put the words “Bread Crumb” in between “End of” & “Trail…” in the titles.
I’m not sure which one, or if it was a combnination of all three, but I pierced someone’s thin skin. Within an hour I received this scathing stream of conciousness email back from the cache owner:
well I am sorry my bread crumb finals were not to your approval. how ever if you read the whole discription in #’s 1-6 they tell of the two end caches BY NAME.And since you are the only one that has complained of the name and that you could not figure out the bonus caches then I will have to conclude that it might be you. I’m sorry if this comes off alittle abrasive but I have already had a big mouth cacher that did not approve of my final containers. And I am going to say the same thing to you I said to him. I paid for all of the items for these caches as well as the means to put them out from NA to Greenwood, I don’t remember anyone else helping me with either of those.To that end I am not going to rename my caches and further more not reading the cache descriptions is not my fault as well. I have 49 hides as of right now which 48 are active. I put these caches out to further the sport and for cachers like you. I don’t do it for my benifit. So yes I do take it personal when someone has a complaint. If you read any log that I have ever wrote you will not find anything in them that I have said that would be disrespectful. I have done some caches that were great and some that I thought really sucked but I would never ever post that nor would I ever tell the cache owner of it. I have 620 finds I see you have 400 plus, that is enough finds under your belt to have a damn good grasp on how this game works. So please read the cache pages before you complain to me about one of my caches. And again I appologise if this offends you but I take my caching very serious. If you need the coords to an end cache please fill free to email me again but it looks like you got it figured out……..kaboyd
WOW! He tells me three times that the final caches are there in his Bread Crumb descriptions, but I’m betting he hasn’t looked in a while, ’cause both Donna and I have read all 6 cache descriptions multiple times and there is nothing there. Maybe they were in the very beginning and he edited the descriptions and somehow dropped any mention or he is thinking of his other series, Cacher’s Dash which does mention the final by name. Rather than respond in kind and counter his diatribe point by point, I decided to try my polite best and replied back with this:
kaboyd,
The trouble with electronic communication is that you cannot see the expression on a person’s face, nor hear the infliction of their voice and it is sometimes easy to misinterpret what is being said. I am sorry if anything I wrote via email or posted in the log for the Greenwood final upset you in any way.
I never meant to imply that I was unhappy with the series, *or* the final caches. As a matter of fact we think the Bread Crumb Series is one of the top series in the area. Each hide is well thought out, evenly spaced mileage-wise with nice spots for parking nearby. The caches are just far enough into the woods so you wouldn’t be seen while you hunt them and with the containers being the same, you know just what you are looking for. As a bonus the route is a 2-lane road through almost entirely undeveloped land, making for a very enjoyable drive.
My only complaint was that I didn’t know the finals were actual caches with CG numbers on geocahing.com. I re read each description in full this morning and while the finals are mentioned, no names or GC numbers are given. Here is a direct copy of the descriptions:
This is a small lock type container camo painted that contains a log book and a pen. It is big enough for some small trade items. These caches are in the woods so be careful.
I designed the Bread Crumbs series #1-6 to lead cachers from North Augusta to Greenwood or Greenwood to North Augusta. In either location there are many very good caches that you can goto once you have reached which ever city you are heading for. On each container you will find clues for two finishing caches. One is in North Augusta the other is in Greenwood. you must complete the series # 1-6 in order to find either final cache. Also don’t forget my other two caches that i have along this route. One is “In the middle of nowhere”(GC1MH7R) the other is “Cachers Dash # 1″(GC1N1GB) which is another series of caches i have that leads you to a 5 stage multi cache. Good luck….kaboyd
As you can see, the only 2 cache names given are for the two other caches you have along the same route, “In the middle of nowhere” & “Cachers Dash #1” which is why I suggested adding the series final’s name & GC# in the descriptions.
Also, if you would, please email back the snippet of coordinates for the North Augusta final that are in bread crumbs #3, as they were to faded for us to read.
Thanks
Brian and Donna Bogardus
BTR & D2!
It has been over 24 hours since my last email and I haven’t gotten anything back from him, not even the coordinates for the North Augusta final. I worked out several possible combinations of whole minutes to combine with what I do know about the coordinates and plotted them on a Google Map and think I have a good idea where the final is. We’ll probably head over and hunt it this weekend (like Donna wanted all along.)
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 707