First Day Out Need Help

[whitetailfan]

Went out for our first caches on fathers day. Man I love this game. I love to take the kids on "treasure hunts".

 

I found two caches in the morning, which I logged as found and made some comments.

 

We went after a third one in the evening. Got to ground zero and stomped around in the thorns and bushes for half an hour. Circled, re-calculated, got poked some more. Looked hard, just cannot find the cache.

 

What do I do now?

Try again and log nothing

Post a DNF and try again later

Put it on my watch list and post nothing

E-mail the owner

Some combination of above

 

If I post a DNF and go back later and find it, do I adjust my post or create a new one?

 

It's easy to figure out etiquette if you find something, but I need direction for no finds.

 

Thanks for the help

Edited June 19, 2006 by whitetailfan

[+Team Neos]

You will get a lot of varying answers, but I think most will say that since you made a sincere effort to find the cache, the thing to do is to post the DNF. If you DNF three more times, leave all of them. When you do go back and find it, make a new post and leave the old DNF(s) to stand.

 

That's what I'd do, anyway.

[+Miragee]

I post all my DNFs and even if I find it the next day, I don't edit the DNF, I post a "Found It." That way, both the cache, and my own Account have a true record of my experiences.

 

My DNFs are often much longer entries than my Found It logs and those often make the best reading.

[+webscouter.]

Agree with the above post, log a dnf and when you find it log a find. Leave all the DNF's

[ImpalaBob]

Posting a "Didn't Find It" is the thing to do if you made a thorough search. A good cache owner should either get back to you, or possibly check the cache to make sure everything is OK. Several DNFs in a row help alert others that their may be problems. If you would rather post a NOTE, that would also be quite acceptable. FYI .... Usually I find stuff the 2nd trip back .... and wonder just why I missed it the first time. The cache is always exactly where I did not look the first time.

 

E-mailing the owner for a hint is another good option. A little nudge in the right direction is all most of us need. Reading all the past logs is another good thing to try when stumped.

 

When you return, you just post a "Found It". Good luck!!!! ImpalaBob

[+Derb522002]

I post my DNF's just in case the cache is missing. I went after a first to find and could not find it. Later that day other cachers went to look for it and the coords were way off. Another cacheI went after posted 2 DNF and come to find out it was muggled.

 

I also go back my through my DNF and then go try to find them again. That is all part of the game if you can't find it the first time go back and try try try again.

 

I went back 4 times for one cache. I talked to another cacher that gave me a hint and searched until I found it. I don’t know how times I walked around it and I was lest then 3 ft from it.

 

Then after finding it I just log it as a find. I leave my DNF I don’t edit them to a find. Some caches are a challenge.

 

Just my .02

[+Team Neos]

I will explain myself, too...

 

Leaving a DNF tells others that someone had trouble finding the cache.

They can judge for themselves if it was because it was missing, hard, or you were just new.

 

Leaving a DNF --or multiple ones--gives others helpful information--or at least it should.

If you say you crawled on you hands and knees looking for it, they might concentrate on looking up high. I fyou tell them there was a landscaping crew near the cache, they know to wait a day or so for them to finish. If you say it was too muddy they know not to go in their dress clothes during lunch, etc

 

Leaving you DNF after you find the cache keeps the record right and makes the logs read corectly. There is nothing worse than seeing a note posted after yours that says "Like so and so I couldn't find it either", when so and so's log says they found it. Leaving it also prevents having to decide which date to use, the day you actually found it or the time(s) you DNFd it. And it's fun to have the record of all your attempts so you can go back and laugh at yourself when you find it and you realize you were making it too hard.

[+miss_butterfly]

I tend to give it a DNF if i know i was in the right place, and tried really hard looking for it but still didn't find it.

 

it also depends on how close the cache is, like if it's a local one, i might only log a DNF after two trips, where as if it's a distant one where i've been on holiday and likely to not go back there in a hurry, then I do log my first visit as a DNF, partly so i can keep track of it in my visited list.

[+humanloofa]

What they said seems to be how most view it. I to like to look at my DNF logs and wounder how the heck I could have missed that one.

[+Team JSAM]

We log all our DNF and if/when we go back and find the cache we make a seperate log for the find as it was a seperate trip/hunt.