so close yet so far away

[markdalan]

My wife and I are new to geocaching. We tried to find 3 caches yesterday and I am sure we were within 20 feet of them, maybe closer. We did not find any of them even though 2 of them were difficulty 1. A lot of leaves are coming down in our area now and this may have made it more difficult to find them. My question is are caches usually buried? Should we take a small shovel? I think maybe we need some more insight on how this geocaching works. Any help would be appreciated.

[+SgtSue]

Caches are never buried, so no shovel is needed. Sometimes caches become covered under leaves, pile of sicks, or other natural material found in the caching area. When you are first starting out remember to read the entire cache page as clues are often hidden in its contents apart from the hint. Read the comments of others which may give you an idea of how it maybe hidden.

[+michigansnorkelers]

It gets easier with experience!

 

You never need a shovel!

 

Also, take a look at this tread:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=146952

[+...The Girl]

Welcome to the fun markdalan!

 

We've all had caches right under our noses and not seen them from time to time. I was just in Tacoma and I spent prolly an hour looking in a rock wall for a cache. The next day I took along my BF (a very seasoned cacher) I jumped down into the small pit, started to tell him where I thought it should be and there it was ... right next to where I had been looking the previous day. We all miss things.

 

Depending on where the cache is located, look in and around tree stumps or deadfall. As you stated, this is a difficult time of year to cache because of all the leaf cover.

 

Caches are usually covered with natural surroundings. Loose bark, leaves, rocks, sticks, pinecones, etc. Some caches may even be covered in camo tape and may even have moss or something else glued to them. Some caches are huge ammo cans and some are teeny tiny bison tubes magneted to something metal. Some caches are lock-n-lock containers, glad containers or tupperware. Some are special rocks, birdhouses, nuts or berries. Some people get really creative and make their caches out of golf balls or old tin cans ... things that look discarded to the untrained eye ... and in many cases, even the trained eye.

 

You're looking for something that doesn't look quite right. What's out of place? What looks like it wasn't covered by nature? What looks like something you might do if you had hidden a cache here? Remember to look up from time to time ... not all caches are hidden close to the ground. Some are at eye level and some have climbing involved. One cache my brother did was in a tree with ropes and pulleys.

 

Like the people in the above referenced thread say, start out with easy caches ... perhaps the bigger the better until you get your feet wet.

 

Whatever you do, don't get discouraged. For me, the best part of caching is getting there. Above all ... HAVE FUN!

[+Prime Suspect]

My wife and I are new to geocaching. We tried to find 3 caches yesterday and I am sure we were within 20 feet of them, maybe closer. We did not find any of them even though 2 of them were difficulty 1. A lot of leaves are coming down in our area now and this may have made it more difficult to find them. My question is are caches usually buried? Should we take a small shovel? I think maybe we need some more insight on how this geocaching works. Any help would be appreciated.

If you're just starting out, stick with Regular or Small size caches for the first few finds.

[+Night Stalker]

Get on one of the regional forums for your area and see if you can find someone to take you under their wing for the first few caches. This will help you a lot when it comes to learning what to look for while caching.

[+jackrock]

I'm still training my "eye" to see where caches might be hidden. Yesterday I got to what I thought was about 30 feet of the cache, I stopped and started to look around for likely spots in the area. It was literally 1 foot from me but I didn't look that close. Two I have found by stepping on them. They weren't buried but they were in depressions and covered over by leaf litter such that their lids were even with the surrounding landscape. It can be really hard when there's no clue about what the container is because you can't look for a specific shape or size. That's the fun of it. It's also the frustration of it. Go back again. I've gone back two or three times before finding a cache and then was ready to kick myself when I found it because I was making it harder than it was.

 

Most important, have fun.

[Neos2]

Just to give you an idea or two of where to look...In some recent adventureswe have found caches:

 

in a hollow of a tree

wired to a tree branch

magnetized to the underside of a footbridge

under a tree root growing out of some rocks, in a hollow spot, behind a rock

high up in a fork in a tree, under a rock (yes, I meant that--it was funny!)

under a flag pole ring

up in the support posts of a low roof

waaaaaay inside some 20 foot shrubs

attached to a fence

sitting in the hollow of a fence

between a cluster of trees

in the crack between a bench and a wall

[+Red_Devil35]

Welcome markdalan!

 

I am pretty new to this myself! I will reiterate the points the other cachers gave you: read the logs, start with easy caches, look for anything out of place, look UP!

In addition, one thing I have found is moving away from where I think the cache should be, letting my GPSr stand still for a little bit, at least until the numbers seem to settle down, then approach the area from a different direction. Sometimes just looking at things from a different angle helps a lot!

 

Red

[+cimawr]

Sometimes caches become covered under ..... pile of sicks,

 

Ewww, I hope not!

 

Sorry, I know that was a typo- it just struck me funny. (Especially since it's not impossible at some the urban caches I've seen - you know, the ones out by the dumpsters. )

 

More seriously, it's not usually a matter of caches "becoming" covered, but of being DELIBERATELY covered to hide them. They're not supposed to be sitting out in the open for anybody to see.

(A pet peeve of mine, because for some odd reason, people keep leaving the one cache I own out in the open instead of putting it back in its hideyhole.)

[+cimawr]

 

My question is are caches usually buried? Should we take a small shovel?

 

No. Caches are never buried in the ground, and you shouldn't need more than your hands to discover them. If they're in the woods, they usually will be in some sort of a natural hiding spot - under a pile of sticks, in a hollow tree, between or under rocks, in the fork of a tree, or the like. Often, they will have sticks and leaves deliberately scattered over them, for further concealment. They may also be camo'd in some way.

 

Also, caches SHOULD be placed in such a way that they can be both found and re-hidden without doing damage to the surrounding environment, although some cache placements fail in that respect.

 

WRT your comment of being sure that you were no more than 20 feet from the caches.... have you heard the term "GPS bounce"? GPS units aren't precise, and their accuracy varies depending on location, tree cover, atmosphere, and a number of other factors.

Sometimes my GPSr points me right at a cache, other times it is pointing me 30-50 feet away, especially if I'm under trees or there are big rocks or buildings nearby.

 

Finding caches requires using logical thinking and observational skills as much as it does being able to read the screen of the GPS unit.

 

Last but not least - what *size* were the caches you were hunting for?

Edited October 23, 2006 by cimawr

[Dugal]

 

My question is are caches usually buried? Should we take a small shovel?

 

No. Caches are never buried in the ground, and you shouldn't need more than your hands to discover them. If they're in the woods, they usually will be in some sort of a natural hiding spot - under a pile of sticks, in a hollow tree, between or under rocks, in the fork of a tree, or the like. Often, they will have sticks and leaves deliberately scattered over them, for further concealment. They may also be camo'd in some way.

 

Also, caches SHOULD be placed in such a way that they can be both found and re-hidden without doing damage to the surrounding environment, although some cache placements fail in that respect.

 

WRT your comment of being sure that you were no more than 20 feet from the caches.... have you heard the term "GPS bounce"? GPS units aren't precise, and their accuracy varies depending on location, tree cover, atmosphere, and a number of other factors.

Sometimes my GPSr points me right at a cache, other times it is pointing me 30-50 feet away, especially if I'm under trees or there are big rocks or buildings nearby.

 

Finding caches requires using logical thinking and observational skills as much as it does being able to read the screen of the GPS unit.

 

Last but not least - what *size* were the caches you were hunting for?

[Dugal]

 

My question is are caches usually buried? Should we take a small shovel?

 

No. Caches are never buried in the ground, and you shouldn't need more than your hands to discover them. If they're in the woods, they usually will be in some sort of a natural hiding spot - under a pile of sticks, in a hollow tree, between or under rocks, in the fork of a tree, or the like. Often, they will have sticks and leaves deliberately scattered over them, for further concealment. They may also be camo'd in some way.

 

Also, caches SHOULD be placed in such a way that they can be both found and re-hidden without doing damage to the surrounding environment, although some cache placements fail in that respect.

 

WRT your comment of being sure that you were no more than 20 feet from the caches.... have you heard the term "GPS bounce"? GPS units aren't precise, and their accuracy varies depending on location, tree cover, atmosphere, and a number of other factors.

Sometimes my GPSr points me right at a cache, other times it is pointing me 30-50 feet away, especially if I'm under trees or there are big rocks or buildings nearby.

 

Finding caches requires using logical thinking and observational skills as much as it does being able to read the screen of the GPS unit.

 

Last but not least - what *size* were the caches you were hunting for?

[Dugal]

I hope that you don't mind me kind of shirtailing on your post but I,too, am new at this geocashing business and am wondering "how far away from the listed coordinates is considered "too far" I realize that, under some conditions, the GPS units are not all that accurate but I have also been having difficulty finding the actual hides when I am reasonably sure that I should be pretty close to it. On one occasion my unit took me to the same broken cedar tree on two different days with different conditions. It said I had an accuracy factor of 5ft on the second day. I looked around an area about 35-50ft in diameter and found nothing so I'm just kind of wondering what's acceptible distance from the listed coordinates?

[+G-Squad]

I hope that you don't mind me kind of shirtailing on your post but I,too, am new at this geocashing business and am wondering "how far away from the listed coordinates is considered "too far"

 

In general, your gpsr could be off by upto 30 feet or so. As could the hiders. So, looking out past 50-60 feet beyond your GZ (ground zero) is not unusual. In fact, most experienced cachers will stop somewhere around 50-100 feet from GZ and put away the gpsr. They will look towards where GZ should be and start looking for the odd pile of sticks or rocks or something that is out of place. They are also thinking "Where would I hide a cache?".

 

Oh, you should also make sure you are using WGS84 Datum and dd mm.mmm for lat/long. I can't tell you how to determine that as it depends on what gpsr you are using.

[+uxorious]

Oh, you should also make sure you are using WGS84 Datum and dd mm.mmm for lat/long. I can't tell you how to determine that as it depends on what gpsr you are using.

 

I see you haven't found any yet. The above quote is important, I know of people who bought GPSr's and couldn't find anything until they set them for the correct Datum.

Seems most of the GPSr's come set to this datum, but not sure all do.

 

Also, you can e-mail the owner of the cache, (or recent finders) for extra hints. The more you find the less you need hints, but they can sure help when starting out.

[+Night Stalker]

Normally my GPS is within 20' of the cache. Of course that is 20' in any directions so I have a 40' circle to search in. On occasion though, the error has been larger. Sometimes it is because the hider entered the coordinates incorrectly. The worst I was off was 1/2 mile. I found the cache because a previous finder had listed the corrected coordinates. I still don't understand how they were able to find the cache. It wasn't even on the same side of the hill.