My first 7 hides and 245 finds (of which 37 were done with a group) were done without a GPS. During this time I also had 20 FTF's. Not all of these finds were that easy, some were out in the middle of the woods or off on a remote island. I became real familar with google earth during this time. I learned how to align land marks and how to pace off between landmarks and then back track to where I needed to be. Some may criticize that I placed caches without a GPS, but I only placed them where I knew the coordinates were spot on. Many of the local cachers, stated that my coordinates were better than someone who had a GPS.