First Hunt

[+AriExplorer]

So my Etrex arrived today, maybe 30 minutes of fiddling, standing in the garden trying to get a signal.. more fiddling... I thought I was ready.

 

Great! It was working so.. just need to input the co-ords of a cache a mile from home, in a park I thought I know quite well.. ok. scratch head and fiddle with Etrex.

 

Pick up manual and read...

 

Fiddle more with Etrex. Ahah! So THATS how you do it.. input co-ords and set off, dog and Dad in tow for company.

 

Well, we didn't find it. Though I'm pretty sure we were close.. In fact, after coming back and checking the hint, the place where I think it is, is where I thought it must be when we were there - except hmm, well I couldn't see it. Dad thought he found it at one point but it turned out to be someone's discarded lunch. Plenty of teenagers, dog walkers and people fishing in the park tonight and yeah I felt a bit obvious rooting in the bushes and prodding at suspect plastic bags.

 

Luckily the park is near enough to home for me to swing past there tomorrow and have another look. The annoying thing is that we were in the right place too. Of course now I look at the logs and see that other people have found the coords to be a bit off which might explain why it seemed to point at the wrong side of a inpenetrable fence. Have now inputted corrected coords and will try again tomorrow!

[+Jeep_Dog]

Welcome to the fun! Keep at it, you will most likely find it sooner or later.

 

First, did you log the excursion as a "Did not find?" It sounds like the cache is there from your description, but there is a possibility that it is missing, and the owner needs to know. Also, if you log the "DNF," then it would give insight to those attempting to provide helpful information/techniques to view the cache you attempted, which leads me to the next point. If you are a brand new geocacher AND new to utilizing GPS technology, probably a cache with a difficulty rating of 1 is what you need to go after. Anything higher, and you may be encountering a cache completely out of sight, so you are coupling floundering in technological devices with not knowing exactly the types of items that are used for cache containers. Going after a 1 would help minimize one of those flounderings.

 

Be sure to view the recommendations for hunting here. Here's an excerpt, for example, that may help you find that first cache:

 

- When you get close to the Geocache (within 300 feet, which is the length of a football field), make sure to check your GPS unit signal. Sometimes the signal will have an error between 25-200 feet. Don’t concentrate as much on the arrow as the distance decreasing, as you get closer to the site.

- For the last 30 feet, use a compass or direct your buddy in the direction of the cache. In some cases we’ve had good luck circling the site with the GPS unit to get a good area to search.

- The final 30-100 feet is the hardest. It helps to think like the person who hid the cache. If there are stumps around, investigate around the base. Check for a pile of rocks. Some stashes, especially in people-trafficked areas, are pretty ingeniously hidden, so it helps to know the container they used.

 

Good luck!

[+Kai Team]

Welcome to geocaching!

 

When you're having trouble finding a cache, think as if you were planning to hide something of about the same size. Much of the time, the spot you pick to hide your imaginary cache will be where you'll find the real one (we humans are so predictable sometimes )!

 

Hang in there - it gets easier as you gain experience.

[+badlands]

You can also get an aerial map by using the coordinates as search criteria in Google Maps

 

Google Earth gives you better resolution but you have to download the program.

[+AriExplorer]

Ah, thanks for the tip about Google Maps.. VERY good to know.

 

I found it!

Edited August 23, 2005 by Arianwyn