The 15th Cache (for 20 years of The 13th Cache) Event Cache

Welcome to Rabbitto's 107th Geocache - This geocache event is held as part of our continuing celebration of our 20 years of geocaching - 2004 to 2024 - and as a thank you to the Geocaching Community over that time

Creating The 13th Cache

We began geocaching at the start of January 2004. During that first month, we located 28 caches, which although it does not sound a lot, it was quite a few for that time. In 2004, it was about par to go off on a 100km round trip for 3 caches. In February 2004, we placed our first cache - a 7 waypoint Multi called "Rabbitto's Ride". It was something that had not been done before around Melbourne at that time

That got us to thinking - "What else has not been done before?"

By March 2004, the ideas started coming together for a series. At that time, Maccamob had the Vulcan Series of 8 caches spread through the western districts of Victoria, but what about bigger? 13 caches dropped all at the same time, with the first 12 giving clues to find the elusive 13th Cache.

During April 2004, we started scoping areas around the Dandenong Ranges. Our criteria was that they all had to be in pretty places that we liked visiting and hoped that others would also appreciate the places that we had chosen. The spots had to each showcase something different but would also vary in the walking distances from the car. In fact, #1, #2 and #10 were almost drive-bys - #6, #7 and #9 were short walks - #3, #5 and #8 were a little longer - and #4, #11 and #12 were about a kilometre each way. Also, #1, #3, #4, #6, #7 and #9 were all in or close to valleys whilst #2, #5, #8, #10, #11 and #12 were all on or closer to hill tops. Everything had a balance.

But what about the 13th cache? The 13th cache was reserved for the best spot of all.

By May 2004, the caches were placed and the names were chosen - all based on the numbers One to Twelve, along with a reference to the area that they were placed. (For the record, I was really happy with all the names with the possible exceptions of Six and Ten, where I really had to draw a long bow to get them to fit). Late one night, I started to write up the cache pages but our rubbish internet at home meant that the upload process kept falling over. So I drove in to work and availed myself of the better upload speeds. Each had the reviewer request to upload all 13 together. If there was a problem with any, please release none. To my relief, late on Saturday 15 May 2004, the series was live.

The Hunt

I had checked, double, triple and quadruple checked all the locations and cache data, but as a cache owner, you are always worried that some blooper is going to lead to a DNF, so the first wait begins.

On Sunday 16 May 2004, two caching teams were waking up and deciding that today may be a good day to go caching. Those teams were Team Crackers amd Mr Coffee (later to be called The Coffee's). First breakfast, then a quick check in for any new caches that had been approved overnight. In those days, you had to print off the cache pages on paper and enter each of the coordinates manually into your GPS unit. To their surprise and delight, there were not one but thirteen new caches located not too far from where they lived. What is this? This never happens.

Quickly packing their cars, they were both off and into the Dandenongs. As the day went on they raced against each other trading placings on FTFs as they go. Their logs still make good reading today.

To our relief, the logs on the first 12 caches started coming in late Sunday afternoon and all were found as planned. Whew.

But what about the 13th Cache? No logs were coming in for that.

Well, there was a reason for that. Finding the 13th Cache was not that easy

The 13th Cache

In the planning for the 13th Cache, I had used something never before seen in geocaching in Victoria (and from what I heard later possibly the world). And that thing was "misdirection". And I had used it in spades

Each of the 12 traditional caches had a puzzle piece inside. Each piece contained one quarter of a set of coordinates and there were 3 of each quarter. This meant that 4 pieces, when used together, gave you the coordinates for the 13th Cache. But how do you know which 4 pieces to use?

Easy, the 4 correct pieces are different from the other 8

Trouble was, there were also some other differences

A short explainer here - the original pieces in the 13th Cache were different to the ones that are there today. There were two reasons to why they were retired, but more on those later

The most obvious thing to spot was that 8 of the pieces were green and 4 were yellow. By putting together the information from those pieces it gave a set of coordinates. If you searched at these coordinates, there was indeed a cache. Inside that cache was a note that said "Congratulations on finding this cache - however - this is not the 13th Cache. Did you happen to notice that the pieces also had <another variation>"

Team Crackers and Mr Coffee had both discovered this cache on Sunday Afternoon.

The second variation was also pretty obvious to spot and I am fairly sure that they also spotted this straight away too. Unfortunately, these 4 pieces also led to a cache which said "Congratulations on finding this cache - however - this is not the 13th Cache. Did you happen to notice that the pieces also had <third variation>"

This one was not so easily spotted, so a revisit to some of the preliminary caches would more likely be required. Unfortunately again, there was a third bogus cache which said "Congratulations on finding this cache - however - this is not the 13th Cache. Did you happen to notice that the pieces also had <fourth variation>" More revisiting

So Team Crackers and Mr Coffee, went home that night without the 13th Cache

And then there was radio silence. Sunday, then all of Monday too.

And if I was worried about problems in coordinates on the first 12, the complex web that I had created and checked many, many times over could still have had had some type of bug. 

And so I waited

Till Tuesday.....

Finding The 13th Cache

Finally on 18/5/2004, Team Crackers, who were now obsessed to the extreme in the solving of The 13th Cache, had ditched work for the day in order to get their final ducks in a line and make the FTF. Whew - for both them and us, as we were now confident that the whole thing worked

The 13th Cache would be found 10 times in the first month. What is amazing is that it has only been found another 123 times in the 240 months since that first month. It seems that with so many "easy" caches to grab around Melbourne today, that this cache has fallen into many a too hard basket

Maintaining The 13th Cache

In 2011, the whole series received a forced revamp. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, at the location of two of the three red herring caches, the track was widened to create a larger firebreak. Hiding any sort of cache here was now impossible. Secondly, after seven years in the field, the wooden pieces were now starting to come to the end of their usable life.

Recreating the whole puzzle in the same format with new locations would be too hard, so new PVC pieces were created using the same coordinates on each piece. There would now be only one red herring cache but that was in the form of a new loggable cache and called "The 14th Cache"

In fairness to those who had come before, we emailed all previous finders of the 13th Cache with the coordinates for the new cache

The method of locating The 13th Cache, however would remain the same

Maintaining the whole series has taken a lot of work over the years. Many containers have been muggled. The dampness of the Dandenong Ranges seeps into containers. In some cases, the original hide just rotted away

Here is a list of all of the cache replacements over 20 years -

That is 67 cache replacements, which is an average of over 3 per year (just lucky that we love coming up here)

That is also 5,222 finds through this series so far over the last 20 years. Many have also been the first cache ever found for a huge number of geocachers

Also, here is a link to The 13th Cache

The 15th Cache Event

This event is a chance to catch up with geocachers from all around, whether you have found The 13th Cache, still finding, or haven't started. Whether you are new to geocaching or been around for over 20 years, come along and join in with this wonderful bunch of people.

I will also be bringing along the back up copies of all the puzzle pieces both 12 old and 12 new. If you are lucky and need a leg up, you may be able to see them (but only one at a time - not all twelve at once - never - ever)

We will bring a few snacks. There is a small shelter. There are two good car parks located nearby and a shortish walk from each. The Belgrave Train Station is also nearby.

If you have not already done them, there are five Geocaches located within a short walk around Belgrave and a five point ad-lab, so you can easily claim 11 finds for the day without getting back into your car

We hope to see you there