Finding A Cache

[+slimey]

Okay, newbie question here...

 

Stumbled across my first cache find today. Went on the a nearby cache, and ended up with a DNF.

 

Are there any tips for newbies for actually finding the cache? Okay, I've decoded the hint, which helped me confirm I was in the right location, but I searched for quite a while, and couldn't find the cache.

 

I've just ordered a cheap hiking pole off ebay, so I've at least got something to help me poke around the undergrowth with (one of the logs on the entry said that they found it when they poked it with their pole)

 

Suggestions?

 

Thanks,

 

Simon

[+robert]

Congrats on your first find! A few things to help out:

• Look for unnatural rock piles, sticks
  
• Check the holes at the bottoms of trees
  
• Check for holes in logs
  
• Look along the sides of a downed tree or log
  
• When you get to ground zero, put away the GPS and just LOOK. Don't worry too much about your GPS pointing you in the right direction. If you're really having trouble, set your stuff down in one spot and work your way out and around from there.
  
• Don't get frustrated. If you do, you're likely to stop having fun. This is about fun, not about one extra smiley, though when you're new those are important to you.
  

I'm sure others will add to the list, but that's all I could think of off the top of my head.

[+AuntieWeasel]

Well, you've learned the first lesson already: this is harder than it sounds. Random thoughts, in no particular order:

 

Sometimes you walk right up to a really hard one, sometimes a really easy one will take multiple trips.

 

If the GPS says it's > 50' away, I move around until the GPS is happier. If it says it's < 50' away, I ignore the GPS and look around for things that seem out of place.

 

Have you, for some mysterious reason, gotten it stuck in your head that it's in a stump (f'rexample), when there's no hint or log that would indicate such a thing?

 

Read past logs. Look for a container description or photo. And g'wan, read the hint.

 

I'm really good at spotting hides in the woods. I'm really bad at spotting hides that have anything remotely to do with rocks. Walls, rocky shorelines, piles of rubble...I shudder when I walk up on these.

 

Walk a hundred feet past it, then turn around and approach from a new direction.

 

If you are a human being, you will occasionally believe with all your heart that the cache must be missing. Do not log it this way; you will usually be proved wrong by the next visitor and feel foolish. By all means, log all your DNF's, but blame your newbieness, at least until you get your feet under you.

 

Of course, every once in a while, the cache really is missing.

[Team Firebird]

Shuffle around. You know when you stub your toe on an ammo box. Also, you might step on it like I did today.

[HWyatt]

My gps tells me when I am close but not precisely on the exact coordinates. So I step around until I am at the exact coordinates of the cache before I start looking. My gps gets me close but I get closer and eliminate lots of territory this way.

 

hth.

 

HWyatt

[KatzDon]

I am so glad someone else asked this very question.

 

My husband and I are just starting out and found one out of four attemted ones today. I firmly believe we are not looking long enough, but sometimes I wish there were more hints. A fallen tree in Wisconsin woods, that's just not that helpful

 

At least we are out in great weather, and the dachsies are having a ball chasing squirrels!

[+The Waldo's]

It looks like other cachers also had trouble with that cache and one person posted the

coordinates were he found it . I suggest You read all the logs they can help.

When I first started out I thought I was the worst searcher until I started going out with

a better cacher them I am and He said to me that it did not matter how many finds a

person has you still bumble around once you arrive at the site.

Good luck and welcome to the sport.

[+Super_Nate]

One of the things that we look for when we are getting close to a cache in the woods or something along that line is to stop and look for "human tracks" We call it such because geocachers, no matter how careful we think we are, will tromp though the tall grass, brush etc. and cause tiny paths which I look for to assure me I'm in the right area.

 

Also, once you get more experienced you will develop hunting tricks for yourself that would aid in finding them more easy.

[+Lacrosse Fox]

make sure you know what type of container it is. then read the hint and logs. print the page if you can. check accuracy of the container. if you can ALWAYS LOOK FOR A PATh. i did a little cache that only needed crossing a river on a path. when we did a mile hike through pure thorns and posion.