Anyone Ever Done This?

[Cloudwalker501]

My mom and I went searching for a cache a few days ago. The coordinates at the top of the web page were to a parking area. Once at the parking area, you had to switch to a different set of coordinates to find the actual cache. We arrived at the parking lot and got out of the car. I began following the arrow to the cache and ended up 2.5 ft. from a tree in the middle of the parking lot. There I was looking all over the ground and up in the tree and in the grass along the curb. I probably searched the area for a good 5 or 10 minutes and then I realized that I was supposed to enter the other coordinates and follow a trail. Boy, did I feel like an idiot!

 

Please tell me I'm not the only one to ever do this?

[+Sioneva]

Um, well, there was the thirty minute search of a guardrail next to a dead-end road once... before I finally called the cache owner. Lesson learned: always read the cache page first. We took the very obvious trail to the very obvious landmark, and, well.

 

Edited December 8, 2006 by Sioneva

[Jeepstr]

Well, not that exactly. I went to go find the mystery Wayward Laptop and it took me a week pf going back and looking for a couple of hours and on the 7th day (I will not give away its clever container) but I found it had been hidden in plain sight. tfth I think

[+Night_Hawk]

How about searching for a simple micro, hidden under a little bridge on a side road and being unable to find it.

 

Then spending the next 10 months or so, stopping by whenever your in the area and STILL being unable to find it even though every newbie post "quick n easy find" only to discover one day you transposed the last 2 numbers and the cache is .15 away..... under a different bridge...

 

Once there you find it in 20 seconds.

[+Woodlit]

I havn't had that exact thing happen to me, but I have messed up punching numbers into the gps before. Find stage one of a multi, and type in the coords for stage two wrong. Its amazing how much trouble one number can cause!

[+IC1]

I managed to hit GZ three different times, only to figure out each time that the spot was for parking. Worse yet when I was there each time it was broad daylight and the cache was a night cache! DOH! Doh! DOH!!!

 

I finally went out at night spent the 10 minutes on the path and found it. I still laugh when I drive by the spot!

[+BlueDeuce]

<snip> I realized that I was supposed to enter the other coordinates and follow a trail.

 

Sounds to me like you are somebody with enough experience to give advice to newbies.

 

Seriously, learn the mistakes, pass it on.

Edited December 14, 2006 by BlueDeuce

[+Team LaLonde]

We did one that read, "The coordinates will bring you to the memorial in the center of the park. The cache is in the North-East corner of the park. N 46 XX.XXX And W 087 XX.XXX" It was listed as a multi but there was only one container. A little annoying, but I suppose a smiley is a smiley.

[+iwikepie]

How about searching for a simple micro, hidden under a little bridge on a side road and being unable to find it.

 

Then spending the next 10 months or so, stopping by whenever your in the area and STILL being unable to find it even though every newbie post "quick n easy find" only to discover one day you transposed the last 2 numbers and the cache is .15 away..... under a different bridge...

 

Once there you find it in 20 seconds.

 

We were up in Seattle for thanks giving and near the place we were staying there was a cache just up the road on a big bridge(closed to traffic)over a city park.The cache rating was a 1.5 and we went up there...must have been around 6 or 7 times but found it eventually.

[+ThePropers]

Why would they put the coordinates for parking as the coordinates for the cache? Unless it was a mystery of course.

 

I would have lodged a complaint with the geocaching police department. Or at least noted my annoyance (politely of course) in the log, and pointed out the child waypoint feature.

[+escondido100]

here in hawaii if you transpose coordinates it usually will put you looking for something in the ocean..... the compass will point out to sea.....switch to map mode and you have a cache in the middle of all that blue wet stuff. after returning from asia last month i hand loaded a dozen new caches to look for on a day i was going to be out and about.....i had some problems on my first cache ... the arrow was pointing out to sea...so i figured that it was a transpose thing but every single cache was somewhere around the japan in the sea. that was just wrong turned out that my gps was still living in asia where E was set instead of W it must be a default thing or i simply wasnt paying attention.

[+NightPilot]

I've spent lots of time looking for caches that had been archived long before I started hunting them. I put them in my Palm and on my GPS, and by the time I get around to them they're gone. So little time, so many caches. There are almost a thousand within 10 miles of my home, and I'm a really part-time cacher.

[+Dgwphotos]

I've spent lots of time looking for caches that had been archived long before I started hunting them. I put them in my Palm and on my GPS, and by the time I get around to them they're gone. So little time, so many caches. There are almost a thousand within 10 miles of my home, and I'm a really part-time cacher.

 

I occasionally pull cache listings out of my geocaching database (binder) that were printed the previous fall, and sometimes I wonder if they have been archived, usually when I have trouble finding them. I haven't had it happen yet, but I have had some that were archived that I spotted before I went to attempt to find them.

[Dinoprophet]

I did that once! I wasn't in the middle of the parking lot, but I spent an hour going over the gate and signage at the trailhead, looking for a micro that wasn't there.

Edited January 10, 2007 by Dinoprophet

[+Colorado Cacher]

..or you could accidently put in one incorrect number and end up exactly 180 degrees, and 40 miles South from your original target. Ouch!

[+Cache_advance]

I have, on numerous occasions (before getting a palm pilot), searched for a cache container at stage I of a multi, not realizing that there was no container there. One time I spent about 45 minutes "interrogating" a gravestone in a very old cemetary. The headstone was loose, and I even tipped it slightly to look underneath it. I lifted the fake flowers out of the flowerpot, and goodness only knows what else I did. DOH!

[+nikcap]

Only thing more annoying is when the second or third stage of a multi is a virtual and you're expecting to find a container.

I've spent a lot of time searching for a hide a key, when I should have been calculating the off-set from a date on a plaque.

 

*Always read and bring the cache sheet with you!*

[+Wayfinders]

Yeah, I'll admit it.........I have.

[Mr.Yuck]

Why would they put the coordinates for parking as the coordinates for the cache? Unless it was a mystery of course.

 

I would have lodged a complaint with the geocaching police department. Or at least noted my annoyance (politely of course) in the log, and pointed out the child waypoint feature.

 

I've seen the coords at the top of the page being parking coords I believe 3 times in my general area (out of probably over 1,000 caches), where you need to read the body of the cache description to get the actual cache coords. Pretty much a newbie blunder I'd say. Also rather silly when you consider how many people download cache coords into their GPSr's. All three were placed long before the "add a waypoint" feature.

 

I should note I'm talking about traditional caches (or multis), where the coords should have been for the cache or first leg, not an unknown/mystery cache.

 

No, I caught it in each case. Can't say the same for many other seekers, from reading the logs.

[+bugsmasher69]

We walked right to a cache out in the middle of the woods then the wife who had the gps tried backtracking our way out and ended up walking us in a complete circle right back to the cache instead of taking us to the car.

[Doggin it]

Oh, heck yeah! We've been to Crystal River, FL 4 different times and thought we knew it from end to end/side to side. Then, we got a GPS and signed up as "geocachers." Well, ok, how hard can this be? We printed all our caches before we left home (NC), charged up the battery (why don't they have SOLAR-powered GPSR's???) and filled up the truck (and the dog's water bottle), ok, and maybe stuck some water in our own cooler (it really does get warm in FL in the summertime) and set out to find some Manatees. Well, we were SURE we were on the right track when we found the most convenient parking lot nearby the bay. We strolled around a little, to orient ourselves and the GPS, but we could never really get to much closer than .2 mile. Eventually, we just started following the arrow, without regard to the distance. We crossed a BUSY 4-lane highway, because, just the other side, was a small city park. Charming, even, with a gazebo and a small stream & footbridge. Very peaceful and relaxing, unless, of course, you are searching for a cache. Finally, we gave up, but pleased that we found a really neat and formerly unknown relaxation point. Dejected, we walked all the way back to the truck. Now, you've gotta understand, Sunny is about 16 yrs old, and for a doggie, that's pretty old. She also has lots of fur, so she looks a little like a polar bear. Did I mention, this fur is WHITE? Well, we prefer it STAY relatively white, and we don't like her tracking tar and other crud into our relatively new, beige camper, so she often gets carried across streets and parking lots. Oh, did I mention, she'd MUCH prefer walking herself (at least MOST of the time), and she weighs in at a hefty 32 pounds? Anyway, here we are back at the truck, when dear wife decides to check the coords just one more time. Geez, who know one little digit could make such a big difference in the "distance to target?" We were in the right place the whole time! At least, our TRUCK was!!! The moral of the story: if you're gonna enter the wrong coords, you just might get lucky and find a really charming city park.

[Stephen2]

Why would they put the coordinates for parking as the coordinates for the cache? Unless it was a mystery of course.

 

I would have lodged a complaint with the geocaching police department. Or at least noted my annoyance (politely of course) in the log, and pointed out the child waypoint feature.

 

I think many caches should use parking coordinates. I appreciate the ones that do. Why? Well, you know you are in the correct place and entering from the direction intended by the hider.

 

If the cache is .5 miles away then i really appreciate the coords for parking!

[+PJPeters]

I think many caches should use parking coordinates. I appreciate the ones that do. Why? Well, you know you are in the correct place and entering from the direction intended by the hider.

If the cache is .5 miles away then i really appreciate the coords for parking!

It's one thing to have a secondary set of coordinates for parking, but they shouldn't be the coords for a traditional cache's location. Sometimes, I walk, or bike from cache to cache. I'm also notorious for looking at my Palm, getting the coords from the first page, then hunting. I know, I know... sometimes, I finde some really neat stuff. Not what I'm looking for, but...

There is the ability to add 'child' waypoints to listings. That allows the cache owner to provide parking info, starting points, etc.

[+-Hawk-]

There were a few of us convoying after a new cache that had been published. It was published late in the day on lets say a Thursday. I loaded up the palms and gizmos with the coordinates within a couple hours of it being published. We then left the next day around noonish, knowing that FTF would more than likely be gone, but it was another smilie that had to be gotten, so off we go. The listing said that it was a film canister, with ratings of 1/1.5 or something like that, and there was no need to go into the woods and that it was about 20 feet off of the road...easy nuff'. So we are driving down the road, and the gizmos are pointing .25 miles to the west, we pull in to a pullout area off the road to see if it was the entrance to the cache...DOH!! No need to go into the woods, so we back track into a fairly expansive housing development that has just the streets..no houses built yet, but cant get any closer than .14 miles. We back track again down the road from where we just came from, thinking that maybe there is a new road on the backside of the property that just isnt reflected on the maps in the gizmos, NADA, cant find where to get to this cache. So we pull over yet again to contemplate any errors in coords, or our next approach, when another cachin' buddy of mine calls me up using his phone a friend option on another cache, and asks what we are out and about doing. I tell him what cache we are after, and what we are going through, and he informs me that the cache owner updated the listing and in the body of it puts the actual coords to the cache, and that the ones on top were a typo . Well, the cache owner did this after I already loaded up the gizmos and palms, so I didnt have that bit of useful information, and didnt think that would happen with a cache that was less than 24 hours old. Ends up we drove right by the film cannister at least three times and all three times we were 20 feet away from it, when we thought we were .25 away. I hate it when that happens!

[+foxgallagher]

I was out caching with my sister. We were doing a multistage and the first coordinates were on the top of a birdhouse some 20 feet in the air. She punched in the coordinates and off we went. We ended up six miles away from the original spot at a fire hydrant alongside the road, surrounded by a farm field. Thinking this could have been possible, she made me get out of the car and search the hydrant. Finding nothing, we whipped out my digital camera that I had taken a picture of the birdhouse with. Somehow the shadows from the tree it was in had screwed up my view of the numbers! We punched in the right coordinates and ended up about 500 feet from the first stage. D'oh!

[+RenoGem & RenoStar]

Okay, I admit to making some mistakes in data entry, but I was wondering if anyone had EVER done an "imaculate cache"? That would be going out for a drive without the GPS or knowledge of a cache in the vacinity, then while stopping to read a roadside historical marker the thought crosses your mind that "This would be a great place for a cache." You then wander around a bit and discover that yes, it IS a great place and someone has thought of it! Spent the afternoon wondering if we're just that good or if was just meant to be.

[+geospyder]

RenoGem & RenoStar:

 

There are very few - if any - State Historical Markers within 50 miles of Reno that don't have a cache BTW - don't forget to attend If you post it they will come...... Saturday evening in Sparks.

[vtmtnman]

Mr.Smartguy that I am thought that the map datum changes depending on where you are.So I had the GPS II set on something it shouldn't have been on.I tried to hunt four caches with it set wrong within a week before heading back over here.I found two,one by spoilers,one by sheer geosense.The GPS would tell me GZ was like 60 feet to the southwest.I was sooo mad.I thought my GPS was busted or something.

 

I tried one cache here with my new GPS V set to the wrong datum again,wondering why it was 464 feet off to the north.Luckily I did some pre hunt recon on google earth before hunting and found it(My first Co-FTF).I happened to be messing around on Geocaching.com one day after that and discovered a neat little trinket of info.

 

All coordinates are given in WGS84 map datum.

 

 

Talk about feeling like a donkey.

 

*sigh*Three more months till I'm caching again.

 

One thing I have noticed with my GPS V is I'll enter a coord for a cache manually,store it,then I'd look at it again two days later and it would change the last three numbers on it's own. Not sure why.

[Zoptrop]

Power lines had me searching about 300 feet away from the actual cache location. Even walked away and came back several times and the GPS never waivered in where it "thought" GZ was. It wasn't until I gave up (and got away from the power lines) that the GPSr suddenly decided the cache was really on the other side of the trail.

[+jwe4i]

yeah kind of...mine was a dead end road..once there and i moved to the posted cordinates, written on the fence was a gps cord and my wife says hey i bet this is the other cord and i refused to believe it would be there for all to see so i searched for 5-10 minutes before looking up and noticing it was an actual wgs84 cord!!! i still never live that one down!

[+badazzamc]

well I got to say I have done this more than 1 time. You would think after the first I would learn.

[+krisandmel]

How about searching for a simple micro, hidden under a little bridge on a side road and being unable to find it.

 

Then spending the next 10 months or so, stopping by whenever your in the area and STILL being unable to find it even though every newbie post "quick n easy find" only to discover one day you transposed the last 2 numbers and the cache is .15 away..... under a different bridge...

 

Once there you find it in 20 seconds.

 

I don't care who you are, that's funny right there!

~k

[+imajeep]

Gee, I did it just yesterday, on GCVMGY. Here's a link to our log. As my daughter would say, massive hilarity!

[+furfool]

One cache I tried to do kept taking me to a parking lot. GZ was about thirty feet from the only thing in the lot which of course was a light pole. I would go and check this pole and find nothing. The GPSr would keep sending me thirty feet away. I figure it must me hiding in one of the many cracks in the asphalt. After nearly a half dozen trips, I realized that it must be a skirt lifter. Sure enough. Next time in the area, I checked under the skirt and there it was. When I went to log my find, what did I find in the hint? Hint: "Skirt lifter".

 

 

One other one : I was searching an area that had been closed off for a few months do to road construction. Things were quite overgrown and by this time of day I was getting quite fatigued. I was hot, tired, sweaty and starting to stumble around a bit. I grabbed a hold of a dead branch to keep from falling when all of a sudden it snapped and was swarmed by a "flock" of bees. Talk about painful. Every time I go out and I see dead wood around a cache sight I end up with flashbacks. Oh well, no pain no gain.

[mtbikernate]

I had a nice blunder last week. Was out caching and did not print out any details, because the cache page said the cache was at the listed coords, was a respectable container size, and was pretty easy. Well, I got to the GZ, and found nothing. So, I started widening my search radius. Still nada. Kept widening, and got a little frustrated and was not very thorough. I ended up STANDING ON the hide location without realizing the cache was there. I went home, disappointed, and read the cache page again, including the hint. The hint made it painfully obvious to me where the cache was. It's too bad GSAK/my gps truncates the hint to the point that it's not terribly useful.

 

It's happened enough times that I may start searching for a cheap used PDA.