Ok, What Am I Doing Wrong?

[+dirtymartini]

Help! I found my first cache fairly easy, now I haven't found the last 3 caches I have searched for. I'm very new to this and have read "The Complete Idiot's Guide" and also the frequently asked questions. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong....except maybe going blind.....

[WH]

THere MANY reasons for a DNF.

 

poor sattelite reception

coordinate inaccuracy

tricky hide

cache missing

etc etc

[+Kai Team]

It may depend on the difficulty rating of the caches you're seeking - the higher the number, the harder it is to find the cache. More difficult caches may involve devious hides or camoflage, etc.

 

You also need to remember that your GPSr will get you to the general area, but it won't lead you to the exact location of the cache. This is due to a combination of the error on the hider's GPSr and the error on your GPSr, which are caused by a variety of factors including terrain, the configuration of the GPS satellites at any given time, and the condition of the upper atmosphere. You can mislead yourself if you attribute too much accuracy to the coordinates. When you get to the general area, stop looking at your GPSr and start looking around!

 

Finally, the best advice I've ever heard is to think like a hider, not like a finder. When you approach the area, start looking for places where you would hide a cache of the size and type you're looking for. I don't know why this works, but it does!

 

We all have DNF's (Did Not Finds) from time to time - sometimes the cache is missing, and sometimes we're just missing the cache. Don't get frustrated - pick some with lower difficulty ratings and you'll begin to get the hang of it soon enough!

[+dirtymartini]

It may depend on the difficulty rating of the caches you're seeking - the higher the number, the harder it is to find the cache.  More difficult caches may involve devious hides or camoflage, etc.

 

You also need to remember that your GPSr will get you to the general area, but it won't lead you to the exact location of the cache.  This is due to a combination of the error on the hider's GPSr and the error on your GPSr, which are caused by a variety of factors including terrain, the configuration of the GPS satellites at any given time, and the condition of the upper atmosphere.  You can mislead yourself if you attribute too much accuracy to the coordinates.  When you get to the general area, stop looking at your GPSr and start looking around!

 

Finally, the best advice I've ever heard is to think like a hider, not like a finder.  When you approach the area, start looking for places where you would hide a cache of the size and type you're looking for.  I don't know why this works, but it does!

 

We all have DNF's (Did Not Finds) from time to time - sometimes the cache is missing, and sometimes we're just missing the cache.  Don't get frustrated - pick some with lower difficulty ratings and you'll begin to get the hang of it soon enough!

Thanks...these were in some rough areas, but I picked them because I knew the area well. Like I've read, getting within 100' is easy, finding the hide is the hard part. I don't give up easy so I will keep going back until I find them. Maybe I will try an easier one first to build my confidence!

[+BlueDeuce]

You'll catch-on to the rough areas. Once you are on site put the gps away and start looking, very carefully. Eventually you'll start 'knowing' where a cache is likely to be hidden.

[+dirtymartini]

You'll catch-on to the rough areas. Once you are on site put the gps away and start looking, very carefully. Eventually you'll start 'knowing' where a cache is likely to be hidden.

Just need more practice I guess...but I think I'm hooked!

[+Jhwk]

yes, practice makes... well, better

 

welcome to the obsession

[+Allanon]

Do like I did...BEG in the local forum for some help.

 

Someone will take pity on you and 'show you the ropes".

[+Faith the Aquariaqueen]

Also, read the logs of past finders.....I can find some nice hints in there sometimes.

[4wheelin_fool]

Usually new cachers will follow the GPS till it reads 0 feet away and expect it to be in that exact spot. Keep in mind the accuracy part - 30 feet off is normal. If your GPS is 30 feet off, and the hiders was 30 feet off when they hid it, then it may be in a spot 60 feet from "ground zero". This is not the norm though, but watch your GPS accuracy - try to get it to 12 feet, and then look for it when it says it is 30 feet away. Avoid micros (tiny, log only containers) - for the time being.

[+tls11823]

Avoid micros (tiny, log only containers) - for the time being.

I agree with this. Often, much of the challenge of a micro hide is that the hider and the seeker generally enjoy something that's misleading, such as camouflaging the cache container as part of a tree or something else that looks like the surrounding environment. This may be a level of difficulty that's currently beyond your level of experience.

 

Another aspect of micros is that they are often (although by no means always) hidden in more public places, which require stealth tactics. If this isn't your idea of fun, you may be distracted from concentrating on the search by worrying about whether somebody is watching you, suspicious of your activity.

[+dirtymartini]

Thanks for all the tips....keep them coming!

[+Rick618]

Don't take the first reading as THE exact spot for the cache. Sometimes, based on cover, error, clouds, or whatever causes the mulitple variables the cache coordinates can seem to move about. Let the gps settle at or about waist high while you poke about for likely spots, then after a few minutes check to see how close you are or aren't.

[+gsmX2]

Look for something that is "out of place" or just looks unusual, a hollowed tree, sticks and leaves at the base of a tree or against rocks, a flat stone where there aren't stones.

 

As you get more experience, you'll develop a "geosense" that will help.

 

Oh, along the lines of "think like a hider," don't look in places where you WOULD NOT hide a cache. For example, I would not hide a cache in brambles, nettles, thistle, poison ivy or oak, or any other plant that scrathes, tears, or itches, so I DO NOT spend time and energy and clothing looking there.

 

Good luck.

[trekgek]

I'm fairly new too. Learning to coordinate between staring at the GPS and taking in the surroundings is a challenge at first when the cache is perhaps more hidden or things that make the GPS jump around add to the uncertainty. Remember the arrow points as the 'crow flies' and not necessarily the easiest way to the cache (specially if you are in the woods). Relax and enjoy the hunt and you'll make your finds in no time. What kind of surroundings are you caching in? Urban, wooded trails, etc

[+The Waldo's]

One question Did You check the logs for any other dnf's ? They will have Blue smiles.

and could the caches be disabled or archived?

I am just asking because I went and tried to look for two caches near my house that

were archived months earlier when I was in my second week of caching.

[+dirtymartini]

I'm fairly new too. Learning to coordinate between staring at the GPS and taking in the surroundings is a challenge at first when the cache is perhaps more hidden or things that make the GPS jump around add to the uncertainty. Remember the arrow points as the 'crow flies' and not necessarily the easiest way to the cache (specially if you are in the woods). Relax and enjoy the hunt and you'll make your finds in no time. What kind of surroundings are you caching in? Urban, wooded trails, etc

Most of the caches I have been looking for are in rural areas. Some are pretty far in the woods in the State Game Lands (PA)

[trekgek]

The woods explains some of the challenge. Right now with the leaf canopy the way it is the GPS seems to jump around more under those conditions. The biggest thing that helped me was to look also at the distance along with the arrow. If the distance is deceasing then you are fine but if it starts to increase then you need to consider changing direction. If the distance stays the same the odds are you are going parallel to the placed cache. Hope this helps.

[+Smukke]

I agree on woods. Look for some that are less woodsy, or less far into the woods.

 

I did the same as you... found one that was pretty close to home, then struck out on 3 in a row & got frustrated. Terrain/Difficulty ratings are very subjective things. And I just don't seem to be able to handle the GPS well enough yet to get a fix on microcaches. As some people have noted, some micro-cachers go out of their way to make their already-teeny caches hard to find.

 

A few things that helped me a lot:

-- Use the decrypted hints -- they are there to help, and it's no shame to use the available information.

 

-- Read others' logs and look at their pictures. You're not looking for spoilers, necessarily, but just some idea of what you seek. E.g., One cache I could not find, I went back & read the logs/looked at pictures and realized I had repeatedly stepped over the well-disguised thing on my unsuccessful search. I walked right to it on my second try. It's easier to find something if you know basically what you're looking for than just looking for 'something that seems out of place.'

 

-- Log your unsuccessful trips as well as your successful ones. You may find that the cache is actually missing, which helps others avoid your frustrating experiene as well. I logged an unsuccessful yesterday & a few hours later someone else with much more experience logged the same, so maybe it really is missing. This may be particularly important on caches that don't have any log notes for a long time -- who besides beginners is willing to admit that they didn't find a cache?

[+Jester2112]

I agree with all the previous posts. I travel quite a bit for my job and have cached in several states around the county. One thing that amazes me is that each new region I've visited, I've run into new and unique hide techniques. We recently had one of our more ingenious local hiders place a micro hung from a magnolia tree. What made this hide evil was that he had found plastic/artificial magnolia leaves and glued them to the outside of the container before hanging it at eye level right in the middle of the path. It took 4 trips and many, many, many reviews of the "Found" logs after my DNFs before I realized what I was looking for. Once I found it, I got my usual "Doh!" reaction as I realized I had probably walked by it 100 times before I found it. Stick with larger caches (E.g. Ammo Boxes, RubberMaid containers - larger than sandwhich size, etc.) to begin with. Once you've got a few more finds under your belt, you'll get over the "I didn't find anything today" feeling and get to the more fun "I didn't find the cache today, that $%#@! hider is just plain evil, sick, twisted, etc." feeling that we all love and will drive you to return to the site to search again, and sometimes again, and again and again, until you find it! Good luck and I hope to make it up to PA one day to catch a cache!

[+dirtymartini]

I'm getting a little better, I found 3 caches yesterday, I took the advice of sticking to the larger conatainers for a while.....

[Major Catastrophe]

I'm getting a little better, I found 3 caches yesterday, I took the advice of sticking to the larger conatainers for a while.....

There you are! And it'll get easier as you practice and learn to think like a geocacher. Sometimes the hides are so obvious to the trained eye that you don't even need a GPS. Which doesn't explain why I recently spent an hour digging in brambles for a cache that wasn't there, but that's another story.