mobywv: This is a long archive log with a short rant near the end. I don't expect anyone to actually read all this, but I just wanted to get all this on the record, particularly for people who wondered why I don't geocache much anymore.
This cache itself had quite the history. The original was a magnetic micro located inside the tunnel. I had decorated the tunnel with skulls, toy bats, heck... I even had an entrance sign! That all eventually went missing. Although I did replace it a couple times with various items around Halloween. Didn't really do much to pick up cache activity though. I never actually exited the one end of tunnel because the water level was too high.
Then, one fateful day, I exited the one end of tunnel because the water level was actually low. That's when I saw the fabled bridge of doom aKa elevated water pipe for the first time! And I knew that had to be part of the cache. So came about this cache, The Director's Cut! Cute, huh?
At first I wanted to make this a multi, having a magnetic micro on the bridge as Stage 2. I wasn't able to find a good place to hide the finale though, which was meant to be an ammo can. Honestly, I HATE micro caches. Alas here, I had little choice. So I ended up putting a micro magnetic container in the middle of the elevated bridge/pipe. The finder had to climb up to the pipe and scoot across to sign the log.
That worked well, but the container went missing I believe on multiple occasions. I ended up putting a bison tube on a nearby tree branch, which I was never a huge fan of, although you still had to climb up to the pipe at least. In the end, I didn't think a bison tube was worth the effort involved in retrieving this cache.
Which brings me to today. This cache had zero finds in 2020, in a year when geocaching "supposedly" had an uptick in activity. It also only had a couple finds in 2019. What I believe makes a GREAT cache is one, as its cache owner, that you'd enjoy going back to check on. I Got It, Lost Creek Multi, Skyhook Challenge, Power of Grayskull... those are caches I enjoy going back to check on. This one? Not so much.
Truth be told, I've lost a lot of interest in geocaching. I believe they really dropped the ball when they replaced the old app with a garbage app, and more so when they started charging everyone to find caches that weren't LPCs or guard raid caches. I mean come on, you think people are going to sign up to become a premium member when all they find are guard rail caches? Really?
The result of this has been a game with extremely limited growth. I look at the current geocaching events and notice almost all the same names I knew back in 2013, but almost nobody new. This game has NEVER marketed itself well. NEVER. And it's sad. It really is. There was so much potential.
But getting back to this cache, I think pretty much everyone in the area who has wanted to find it has done so. And with so few new local geocachers, I don't see this getting much more (any) activity in the future. So for this reason, as well as the others stated, I'm archiving.
Finally, a special thanks to NoVAGO for giving this cache an award back in 2013. Very much appreciated! The caching community here is fabulous! One of these days I'll show up to an event again. And MAYBE, just MAYBE, I might have one last cache in the works. We shall see. And with that, Mobywv's (or vw's?) Tunnel of Doom (Director's Cut) is no more!