Fourteen Minus Six by The Dam Trolls

These three friendly looking folks are actually Trolls. What is causing those smiles? There are some Delaware Geocachers who think the Trolls have installed web cams at their cache sites so they can watch cachers struggle. Keep this in mind if you choose to look for:

Fourteen Minus Six
by The Dam Trolls
Photo from geocaching.com

Last month we featured a series of cache sites that provided a beginner with a chance to sharpen their GPS skills. This month we feature what may be one of the most difficult-to-find cache sites in the state.

The Dam Trolls began their cache hiding career placing caches near dams. (They hold the "honor" of being one of the few geocaching teams to have one of its caches blown up by a bomb squad) Then they began to branch out. Mr. Troll works for the University of Delaware so he and the other trolls created a number of great cache sites distributed throughout this sprawling campus. This time the Trolls took the precaution of appraising U of D security on the location of their caches.

Fourteen Minus Six is also on campus. But just try to find it! A quick look at the log for this site shows that many have tried - few have succeeded.

Usually these articles are accompanied with one or more photos of the general location of the cache. This time we chose not to do this. The cache is in a high profile area of the University. Any photo would reveal too much. But know this, this high profile area is loaded with muggles. You'll need to use great caution as you search and to be ready for an onslaught of muggles at any moment. Timing is everything.

Mr. Troll explains that the idea for this cache was borrowed from a cache the Trolls had experienced in Canada. Bringing the idea back to Delaware, they needed to find an appropriate location and to change the measurements from meters to feet and inches. The site went up on November 5, 2005. Next day Horn229 was there. It would take him four trips and about 10 hours of searching before he could log a find. Yet, once found, Horn229, like the other successful finders dubbed this a top ten cache site.

This is one of those sites where the "thrill of the hunt" plays a big role. You KNOW its there. But, WHERE IS IT HIDING?

How difficult is this site? Here's some comments from a few of the successful searchers:

Lynn of the CCCooper Agency has 13252 finds to her credit. In the log she writes of her November 11 visit: "Spotted ground zero while driving around and around looking for a parking spot. Ended up about .15 miles away and decided to do this one & the coffin together. After searching 'all over', my phone rings and it's the cache owner (SURPRISE!). Now i have to ask 'are you watching me?' - now what makes you think that??? 'well for one thing i'm in a HIGHly visible place!'...well he tells me the same thing that he's told everyone else that his 80 yr old grandmother in a wheelchair can find this one. Sign me up for her physical therapy classes because i'm outdone!

After countless (i'm sure he was keeping track) minutes, the phone rings again to hone me back on track. Embarrassingly prm had earlier told me that the cache owner figured this one would only take me a walk up and 30 seconds to find! It's better not knowing these things because you feel set up and ready for a fall! Anyway my problem with this one was that i could not get 'my ideas' of how this had to be hidden out of my mind and by golly that cache had to be there, hidden in that manner! I REPEATEDLY missed the obvious! A text message with one word magically appears but by then I'm still trying to force fit the cache into my description of the manner hidden! A shadow falls across the area. It's the cache owner telling me that classes are soon changing and the area is going to be full of students. When I spot the cache FINALLY I feel like such a lunkhead! Maybe I need to attend geo-remedial-school 101!!! GREAT HIDE!!! It's really up there in my top list of geocaches."

Adding to this Lynn tells Delaware Geocachers: "The Dam Trolls are being generous in their assessment of my find ability on that cache. It was a humorous find and was perhaps caught on tape by the UD camera."

PRM who has 280 finds became the first to find (FTF) after 9 hours of searching over two days including one session that lasted until after 2am and featured a visit from University Security. In the site log he writes: "I'm inspired. Really. The magnetic hide-a-key is probably going to stay stuck to the side of my desk. I don't know if I can ever place another h-a-k micro. This was very cool, and it has, even with 9 hours of searching, made it to my "most favorite caches" list. Thanks! This was really fun, in a slightly masochistic way. And, it was a beautiful if windy day, so the views from the... um... location were exceptionally pretty."

Contacted by Delaware Geocachers, PRM adds: "Well, I'm certain I wouldn't have the FTF on this if it hadn't been for help from the Trolls.  It's an extremely clever hide.  The devilish thing about this cache is that you know immediately where it has to be, but there's just NOTHING THERE.  I spent a huge number of hours scouring the place, at all hours of the day, looking for the cache.  At one point we even had the police visit because we were acting suspiciously.  One of the clever things about this hide is that you can't see the actual cache, but you can see where it is if you are very, very observant.  This is one of the most frustrating caches I've ever done - tougher even than the pine cones cut apart and glued on the outside of a cache tube hidden in a pine tree - but it was also one of the most fun.  Of course it was a bit unnerving to have Mr. Troll occasionally pop out of a building to yell a clue or two."

So far 16 individuals have tried to find this cache. Most have required many hours and several visits. But then there's this entry from pats_idea dated Jan 14 (pat has 76 finds):" Up here from Charlotte NC and was taking a few detours with my geo buddy to find a few caches. Thanks for the find."

So it can be done. Who knows - maybe beginner's luck counts for something.

One of the things that sometimes makes a cache harder to find than it needs to be is coming at it with preconceived ideas. This one is small. Several persons have noted that they looked right at it and didn't recognize it. Some have even noted that they touched it and didn't realize that it was the container.

The Trolls are to be commended for crafting an excellent site.

If you have a few hours available, and are willing to look for something that is hiding in plain sight, try this one. If you're not sure you're ready for this one yet, visit the site's description on geocaching.com and read over the log. The Trolls have succeeded in generating one of the most interesting log book discussions you can hope to find.