edscott

Last September a new cache was placed about a mile from where I work. It is a small area, but the dominant features are boulders.. thousands of them totally covering an area of perhaps 30 acres. Some are the size of small cars, others are much smaller, but the ground is nearly covered by rock. I don't use a GPS and of course the USGS really smooths out the contour lines in places like this so it became a real search for me. The discription said "under a large boulder" so over the next few days, I got to know each of them by their shape and position. After about 3 unsuccessful trips I paced in to the spot that I thought was indicated on the map from three different landmarks on the USGS.. each of which was perhaps 200 meters away... and came to the same spot each time. Here I built a small cairn to save time later and came back several more times to search an area centered on the cairn. In November, with daylight savings time gone I was forced to put the search on hold, but a couple days ago someone put up a photo of them at the site. In the photo... a foot from the open cache was my cairn. Went there early the next morning and found the cache was beneath the same rock that I had chosen as the base of my cairn. So my map reading was perfect and my vision greatly flawed edscott

Yes I know how to do it.. I orienteer much more than I geocache. I also leave my compass in the car most of the time when geocaching so I force myself to use only the map. Edscott

Yes multi part caches are a pain without a GPS. The only one I have done so far is only 5 miles or so away. Did one part per day. edscott

I do a similar job for a similar organization. ...evaluating and approving orienteering courses for National level competitions sometimes from 3000 miles away. It is really more difficult to evaluate a course, and I assume a cache, from in front of the computer than by seeing it in person. But often there is no other way to do it. So it becomes very important for the designer to make every effort to have a good cache, but more importantly to be able to convey that image in words to those that are checking the work. My first cache was rejected due to a lack of communication on my part. The others were approved within hours I suggest that more time spent planning and writing may increase your success rate. edscott

Just wondering how much of a minority I am. Don't own a GPS, but enjoy finding caches using a topographic map instead. I often choose vastly different routes to the cache than most since I can "see" the whole area. Some caches must be easier this way.. but I know from experience that some are much more difficult. Anyone else doing it this way? edscott