Cache maintenance and other such activities

I started placing caches since 2003 and of course some of them are more exposed to muggles or forestry activities and weather than others. Some years ago I had caches up to 300 km from home for various reasons but now I think the farthest one from home is about 100 km away, but as that is the most visited (1259 finds at the last count) I am trying to keep it alive. It is also in the most muggle intensive place imaginable Upptaåget #13 – Uppsala so the maintenance needs are quite high. Recently a cacher reported that the plastic bag and log needed replacing. I know that a couple of years ago someone placed a second ”cache” at the location as they couldn’t find the one I had placed. I replaced the missing cache with a new green PETling but couldn’t find the temporary cache. The temporary cache is still there but it needs removing. That sounds like a new trip to Uppsala with the hope that I can find it so I can remove it. That’s for the near future but what have I done in the near past?

This week I have been busy as I have replaced a couple of caches that were muggled and discovered that at Hemlingby Trail #8 – Perspective (now disabled) the construction at GZ has disappeared and it wasn’t a small item! A new home will be needed to be found for my cache, which in itself was quite special.

Perspective’s hiding spot has gone

Another form of maintenance is needed for my caches with padlocks on them. I don’t know if the padlocks are just bad or if people enjoy altering the code after logging their find. Today I had to reset a padlock code Hemlingby Trail #9 – Numbers and as you can guess that means a brute force attack by starting at 0000 and working upwards towards 9999. My fingers are sore from rotating the number rings on the lock and I was lucky to only need to get to 5137 before the lock opened.

Cache, the cracked code lock and sweets found next to the cache

I had to check a letterbox cache Hemlingby Trail #15 – ATM were it was reported that there were some occupants in the birdbox housing the cache that the cacher didn’t want to remove, so could I please do it? I knew roughly what to expect so had gloves and a plastic bag with me as well as full body armour! A wasp’s nest is not something to be played with. Luckily, I saw no wasps flying round the birdbox and when I carefully opened it I was relieved to find an old empty wasp’s nest. Had it been occupied I may have been tempted to leave it well alone as it was rather large.

A big wasp’s nest

Wasp’s nest removed

I then moved on to another of my caches Hemlingby Trail #12 – Pinball Wizard where it was reported that the cache was missing. I won’t go in to details as it’s a gadget cache and I don’t want to spoil the fun. The cache was still there but the mechanism had got a little rusty. After some work all is functioning again.

Hemlingby Trail #4 – Jannes fäbod had been muggled and only the lid of the old container remained. A new container is in place and I hope that it lives a lot longer.

Jannes fäbod, new container and remains of old one

I have been forced to archive a cache that is on Limön a small island close to Gävle. It was a multicache but someone decided to vandalise the sign that gave clues to the final location. I wondered if I could convert the cache to a trad but today I heard that there will not be any boat traffic subsidized by the local council to the island next year. A trip was very cheap at 50 SEK return. Apparently the subsidy was 600 SEK/traveller so I can understand why it is disappearing. No doubt the other caches I have on the island will be archived in due course as I have no means of getting to the island any longer.

So all in all an intesnive week but it feels satisfying to have revived a number of flagging caches and hopefully can fix a fitting location/container for Perspective.