The DNF That Started a Friendship

July 21, 2010 · Shorewood, Illinois

I first met djpd1023 at a geocache in Shorewood. I’d gone back that morning for another shot at the first-to-find. He was there for the same reason. We ended up looking together and both walked away with a DNF.

I said I’d be back

On July 20, 2010, Let’s go fishing! (GC2C0RJ) went live in Shorewood. Blackwater Cachers had picked an area I’d scouted less than a week earlier for a hide of my own. Somebody had beaten me to the spot, so I figured I could at least try to beat everybody to the logbook.

It was my last stop that night. By the time I got there, it was dark. I looked for a while, came up empty and called it a night. I ended my log with “I’ll be back.” My July 20 log

Someone else had the same idea

I went back the next morning and ran into djpd1023 at the cache. He’d just gotten off work and had the same idea.

I recognized his username. The summer before, he’d given me a tip on The trail we ride-niagra falls (GC1T88A), a cache my family and I had gone back for after a DNF. This was the first time I got to put a face to the name. My June 2009 log

We teamed up and looked until, as he put it in his log, “the skeeters took the fun away.” The mosquitoes had better luck finding us than we had finding the cache. djpd1023’s July 21 log

The early bird gets another shot

Two days later, djpd1023 went back and got the first-to-find at 8:30. Even then he had to find it twice, in a way. The container was empty. He found the log sheet on the ground nearby. djpd1023’s July 23 find

I took about a month longer. On August 22, I swung by while running errands. The owner had updated the coordinates by then. After two tries in July, this time I found it in no time. My August 22 find

Ten years later

Over the years, djpd1023 became a very good friend. One March day in 2015, he suggested we go after a series of puzzle caches in Chicago. I’d already solved the puzzles and was glad to finally get out and find them. If it hadn’t been for climbing over piles of snow, I might have forgotten it was still winter.

With djpd1023 on a Chicago geocaching day, March 7, 2015. Photo by Steven Pierson.

Last May, we were on our way to GeoWoodstock in Fort Worth with CanisMinor and mjholley when we made a detour through western Kansas for Mingo (GC30). We took a picture together at the cache. We’d come a long way from that first search in Shorewood. Mingo: A Pilgrimage to Geocaching History

Our group at Mingo in western Kansas on May 22, 2019. Photo by Steven Pierson.

I went back that July morning because a DNF bothered me enough to give the cache another try. I’m glad I did. I’d have missed meeting a good friend that morning if I’d found the thing the night before.

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Field Notes

• First meeting — Morning of July 21, 2010, in Shorewood, Illinois.
• Cache — Let's go fishing! (GC2C0RJ), placed by Blackwater Cachers.
• First attempt together — We both walked away with a DNF.
• First-to-find — djpd1023, July 23, 2010, at 8:30.
• My find — August 22, 2010, after the coordinates were updated.