2026 – Dan Q

Fishsmith

I’m a little fishsmith,
Short and stout.
Here’s my anvil,
Here’s my trout.

Dan Q wrote note for GC448J6 EL TRESOR DEL POU DEL MON

This checkin to GC448J6 EL TRESOR DEL POU DEL MON reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

When I visited two years ago I thought I’d solved the puzzle but couldn’t find the cache. I’m in the area again today and thought I’d make another attempt, but the recent ‘enabled’ seems to suggest that it isn’t actually available?

Maybe I can try again in 2028!

I don’t work here!

I guess it’s the laptop and the pile of towels that cause the confusion, but people keep asking me questions (usually in Spanish) about where to get towels from and whether they can use the pool at this hotel.

And I have to keep explaining that nope, I don’t work here, I’m just watching my kids play while I catch up on my RSS reader!

Dan Q found GC9Q6G6 PORTA DE BARCELONA

This checkin to GC9Q6G6 PORTA DE BARCELONA reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A quick find exactly where it should be while driving from Tarragona to Barcelona. My family and I were in the area for the eclipse and then for a trip to PortAventura and are heading to Barcelona for a few days before flying home.

My partner and our kids went to the bathroom and snack bar while I jogged up to the bridge. The coordinates put my close but the hint moved me exactly where I needed to be. Strangely, I suddenly needed to tie my laces, and then just as suddenly the cache was in my hand!

Thanks for breaking up this long journey (full of bad traffic!) for us. TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!

Geocaching.com Can’t Count? (my 1000+ geocache finds!)

This week I’m in Spain to see a spectacular eclipse, among other things. I’ve also done a reasonable amount of geocaching, including on Tuesday finding my 1000th geocache.

Which led me today to ask: how many caches does Geocaching.com think I’ve found? It’s the biggest, but not the only, site I use, and so I didn’t expect it to show the same total as me. A difference is expected.

Well… it turns out how you ask it. In the top-right corner of the page, when I log in, it says that I have… 1,035 finds:

That turns out to be significantly higher than I’d anticipated, which initially made me wonder: did I fail to count some in my tally?

My tally comes from those which have been imported right here onto my blog. I use a computer-assisted but still-manual approach¹ to PESOS my geocaching logs from various sites – Geocaching.com, OpenCache.uk², TerraCaching, etc.³ – onto my blog, and then I count them here. Could my data be wrong?

So I went about checking it. Which turned out to be challenging, because the “foreign key” I use to associate the caching logs on my website is the log ID that appears in the links on Geocaching.com… and those changed format somewhere along the way.⁴ So first I had to fix all of my metadata spanning about 750 rows. Then I was able to check.

But while I did that, I noticed something strange. When I click on that link that says I have “1,035 finds”, the resulting page has a link to see what they are. And it claims there are… 1,005 finds:

Stranger still, a different link from the same page on Geocaching.com told me that I had 1,006 finds!

Screenshot showing that Dan Q has 1,035 finds, of which all 1,006 are shown in a table. Wait, what? — This screenshot’s my favourite, because it shows two different totals at the same time!

Even before I’d corrected all of my metadata and rechecked my totals, I was becoming increasingly convinced that I couldn’t trust any of Geocaching.com’s totals. How many finds is it, exactly: is it 1,035? Or 1,006? Or 1,005?

It doesn’t really matter, of course. I keep my own count, and I’m now even-more confident than ever that it’s accurate. The correct answer to to the question “how many geocaches have I found?” is 1,019.

And for some reason, Geocaching.com can’t count even the ones that are logged on their site three times and get the same number twice. 🤣

Footnotes

¹ This helps me sidestep Geocaching.com’s draconian rules on scraping and API access.

² I got in trouble once with a Geocaching.com reviewer for hinting at the existence of other geocaching listing sites, once. I don’t understand why: they’re unlikely to be a commercial threat to Geocaching.com’s business, and those other sites typically allow you to talk about Geocaching.com! I guess that they’re mostly afraid that it weakens their trademark on the word “geocaching”, which I’ve never been convinced is legitimate anyway because it was being widely used online to describe the activity it represents before they tried to start centralising and hoovering-up all of the cache listings. It’s just sneaky monopolistic silo behaviour on the part of Geocaching.com, really. I’m not a fan. I can list plenty of examples of this kind of dipshittery on the part of Geocaching.com, but I’ll spare you for now.

³ I do a similar thing with my geohashing logs, although without the same anti-anti-scraping mitigations because geohashing.site’s site owner is a much more-chill dude.

⁴ Many of my old logs used a GUID, but newer ones use a GL-ID. It’s a whole thing.

Dan Q found GCAYFMG Més enllà de la via II (13) – Granja Fortuny

This checkin to GCAYFMG Més enllà de la via II (13) - Granja Fortuny reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Retreived the cache from beneath its insect guardian (pictured). TFTC!

A cricket sits on a rock. — Guardian of the cache!

Dan Q found GCBBYYH Més ellà de la via II – (12) Caçar entre pedres

This checkin to GCBBYYH Més ellà de la via II - (12) Caçar entre pedres reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Coordinates spot on! Exactly where it should be. From the right angle, the cache can quickly be spotted. TFTC!

Dan Q found GCAY62F Més enllà de la via II (11) – Quina pila

This checkin to GCAY62F Més enllà de la via II (11) - Quina pila reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Quick find in the second place I looked while walking this trail as a shortcut back to town from the Passejant amb la Boira caches. TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!

Dan Q wrote note for GCAY628 Més enllà de la via II (10) – Em sento penjat

This checkin to GCAY628 Més enllà de la via II (10) - Em sento penjat reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Not attempted. Lots of litter around the GZ, didn’t feel like walking, let alone poking, through it. 😢

Dan Q found GCB0EGT Passejant amb la Boira – Un altre túnel?

This checkin to GCB0EGT Passejant amb la Boira - Un altre túnel? reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Found in the fourth place I looked. Nice container size, like the last letterbox hybrid.

This is where we’ll part ways. As much as I’ve loved this series so far and would enjoy exploring more of it, I need to get back to my accommodation where, apparently, my kids are waking up and ready for another fun day. So I’ll be switching to the Més enllà de la via II trail and finishing my walk soon FP awarded for this series as a whole; I’ve loved every moment of it (even that one frustrating cache from a few minutes back!).

TFTC, and if you the CO ever find yourself over my way, can I plug my cache GC9GTV3 Drive Slowly; Fox Crossing. It’s 100% the kind of hide you’d enjoy based on what I’ve seen of your work here!

Dan Q did not find GCB0EGN Passejant amb la Boira – Senglars?

This checkin to GCB0EGN Passejant amb la Boira - Senglars? reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Had to give up after an extended search.

I approached the GZ with two solid (different) ideas about the kind of thing I would be looking for. But a good explore of many candidates for each didn’t reveal this cache.

I’m sure it’s there somewhere! But not for me to find today.