Cachetastic: Part One: New York Edition

On April 20th both Colette and myself had the day off. Since we try to work opposite shifts this doesn't happen very often. As a result we planned the day to consist of caching, caching, and more caching. On my way home the night before four caches had been published, so the idea of our first FTF (First to Find) was sitting in our minds. While we're not in the game for the speed of the find, we both liked the idea of getting a FTF.

Take a penny, Leave a penny
Our first cache of the day was a micro just north of Plattsburgh. The description of the cache mentions that it wasn't big enough to hold swag, but the cache owner thought that taking and leaving a penny would be a fun idea. We pulled up to the end of the dead end street and I got out, armed with our camera, a pen and a penny and headed into the woods. After about 10 minutes of searching and looking at the hint I wasn't able to come up with anything. I turned to go back to the car to let Co try and I noticed that she was talking to someone. He left as I returned but Colette told me that he was curious as to what we were doing. She explained, and fortunately for us he knew what geocaching was and had noticed 4+ other groups of people doing the same thing since the night before. Colette then headed back out while I decided to fire up the internet browser on my phone and be disappointed to see that someone had already logged the FTF. Upon loading the page I found that the cache owner had disabled the cache. He thought that it's placement was too difficult and wanted to move it. I got out of the car to go tell Colette that it was disabled and to never mind and I discovered her signing the log on our very first FTF! The prize for FTF was a nice handmade trinket.

Jport's Cumberland Micro
The next stop was on Cumberland Ave. There we searched, and searched and searched. Every nook and cranny we could find but to no avail. We also tried back later and still did not find (DNF) it. Maybe next time!

Jport's Story Cache
This was a very cool cache. Not only is it on a trail that we didn't know existed, it also has a neat concept. Inside the cache is index cards. On the first index card is the beginning of a story. The idea is that each person to find the cache can contribute to the story, then later the cache owner is going to email everyone who donated to the story the completed project. We were the first ones to find it (FTF!) and so we got to add the second page. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the story turns out.

Kentucky Fried Cache
Can you guess where this cache is hidden? That's right, by the KFC in Plattsburgh! Both Co and I tried several times to find this cache but ultimately we were unsuccessful. To be honest I wasn't really sure what I was looking for. Besides, the entire area could be the center of a Cache In, Trash Out (CITO) mega event. There was more garbage nearby than in the dumpster on the hill! We'll give it another try later since it has been found since we searched.

After our second DNF for the day we decided to take the ferry from Cumberland Head to Vermont. I'm sure we'll have more luck there!