The FTF WOOT thread....

[+Snoogans]

Got my first FTF in YEARS this morning on THIS cache not far from home.

 

 

I've said many times that FTF is not my drug of choice but it sure feels GOOD to get one every now and then.

 

Had yourself a shot of FTF recently? Share your story and provide a link.

 

I especially want to hear from the infrequent FTFr's.

 

[markandlynn]

9 hours from our home know how to go for them a gps enabled blackberry via work will do the trick but chhose not to.

[+wimseyguy]

I like WOOT, I like it a lot.

Goat woot is especially nice. It can keep you very warm.

I don't care much about the race for FTF though.

Edited October 16, 2007 by wimseyguy

[Luckless]

I like your first to find tokens. Someone mentioned in another thread about putting certificates (or tokens) in a cache for people to take to verify that they were first to find to avoid any further arguments with others making that claim. Get there, grab the certificate before anyone else, you're first to find. Of course if there is a whole group of people who are FTF or the person doesn't take the FTF token then that could create problems... but I don't want to go there.

[+Ambrosia]

I don't really try to get FTF, it's not something that I think about. But you're right, whenever it happens for whatever reason, I do get a bit of a smile, dunno why. I guess it's something deep in our psyche, to be the first ones to conquer something. Even when we don't seek it out, we can suddenly be conscious of the occasion when it happens.

 

Not really recent, but I can't remember my last one and this is my most enjoyable.....you can go down to the bottom to read my log (read the log above mine as well): UTM

 

I hadn't expected one, because the cache was 2 days old. I just happened to be doing the cache at that time. The coolness facter was due to the breath-taking experience of the cache itself, and the fun meeting that I had. We were walking out at night, just me and the kids in a remote area. As we were walking down the hill, we saw a car was parked with its headlights on. I got a bit nervous, but just hoped it was a cacher. As we got closer I saw that there was one person roaming around and as we got even closer I recognized a local cacher and breathed a sigh of relief. I had just beat him to a FTF (and he lives in another town!). We chuckled a bit over us crossing paths in the night. While we were talking, another car pulled up. But it was just a young couple who were going hiking up in the hills. An odd little group of people all out in the wilds in the dark.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I like WOOT, I like it a lot.

Goat woot is especially nice. It can keep you very warm.

I don't care much about the race for FTF though.

I agree about the goat comment. I also agree about FTFs. I never deliberately try for FTF, but it has happened accidentally a few times.

[+elmuyloco5]

We are definitely infrequent FTFers! We have three small kids (9,7, and 6) so we're not usually out at the hour that FTFers are and tend to move a bit slower too. But, it's not really a big thing for us either. My husband has special memories as a child traveling with his grandparents, and I have mine hiking and camping with my family. So, we're hoping that our kids remember GCing (along with our hiking and snowshoeing) as their special memories.

 

We only have two FTFs. The first was at the Valencia Fun Day Event (the first event we've attended in our state). We received our packets with the new cache coordinates at 10am. My husband said to pick one that I wanted, so I picked a cache placed by Team Tux as we loved their Harding County Cache as it had beautiful views and a benchmark that didn't have it's metal marking but instead a large "x" carved in the stone. I guess they forgot their marker when they went out. It was funny and we got a great pic of the kids lying down around the "x". So we set off for their cache, Viva Valencia which was across some railroad tracks and a very busy rail section apparently. We got stuck waiting on two trains before the search. We finally got to the spot, grabbed three envelopes thinking they were the kids' part of the poker run, and then it dawned on me that they were the cards for the poker run and we had to go back. We got stuck by two more trains. They stopped for a while and we ended up having to find another route out. But, all those trains provided us with the FTF!

 

The second FTF we've had was just a couple of days ago at our local event Meet Eat and Greet Event. We received the coordinates on Friday (the event was on Sunday) and were told not to start looking until Saturday. Our kids asked if we could stay up until midnight and search for some then. So off we were for our nighttime caching, which the kids loved. We saw other flashlights and thought they were other cachers at first, but decided they must be campers in the area. I'm sure they wondered what we were doing, but I had planned to tell everyone we were having trouble finding the porta pottys. We snagged our FTF (probably the last for a long time ) at All the Way to Camp Mayand started off on others on the list. We looked for a couple, but it's getting really cold up here at night and the kids were just too uncomfortable. We didn't want to claim anymore FTFs anyway as we wanted others to have a chance. We figured others would be out looking for them, but I guess we lived up to our name and were the only ones nuts enough to look at midnight in those temps! I think we're gonna have snow for Halloween again this year!!!

 

The events were both a blast and our local cachers are the greatest group of people! We've had the chance to meet some wonderful people and our kids have made many new friends. FTFs or not, the events are where it's at in NM!!!

Edited October 16, 2007 by elmuyloco5

[+Trucker Lee]

Stumbled onto two in the same day! Yippee! Had made a delivery in Tulsa and was headed back home. I had loaded the PQ, but without taking time to review the caches. Both were in parking areas on the Indian Nation Turnpike.

[+rstefano52]

I know that I shouldn't let it bother me and since I have only been caching since April, I suppose that I shouldn't expect it but I SURE would like ONE FTF! I don't think I'm going to get any more than that for a very long time but that first one sure is taking a long time in coming! It's even harder when people try to help like trying to get caches published when they know that you'll be close by! I think the only time that I will have a good chance at one will be when I am REALLY retired in about 10-12 years.

[+Isonzo Karst]

I worked hard on FTF up until I had 100, then just starting taking them as they might come. And that mostly means kayak caches, or longish hikers or multis.

 

In the heat of the summer a new kayak cache appeared about 90 miles up the coast from me, and a geo-buddy saw it too, emailed and asked if we were up for the drive and the paddle. Natch we were - a lovely day.

 

Cache placer did a heck of a job of tracking down a single Florida state owned island in the midst of a NWR. WOOT, we were the first finders, even though we had to wait for Saturday morning.

 

IK log on Every Dog Has His Day by ataritron

[+FamilyDNA]

My last FTF was on this cache.

 

It started this thread.

[WhatUpDog]

I don't usually rush for FTF, but I do cache a lot and therefore get the occasional FTF. Just got my most recent one about 4 days ago.

[+Stargazer22]

Hey Snoogans!

 

I've seen some pictures of your FTF tags before, definitely COOL!

 

We got a couple of FTFs at an event earlier in the year but I don't really count those since they were associated with the event.

 

We just got our first honest-to-gosh real live FTF this past Saturday.

I'm an amateur astronomer and like to head out to the Ocala National Forest a couple of times a month for stargazing. We were packing up our stuff Friday night and I ran a quick check to see if anything new had been put out in the area. There was one that had just been published a couple of hours earlier.

I told SwampyGirl to stir her stumps so we could get our act together and see if we could manage a night time FTF. We got to the area at about 2:30 AM and saw a car parked about a mile and a half away right next to another cache on that road. I told SwampyGirl we had probably been skunked out of our FTF.

Luckily, when we opened the cache and pulled out the log, we were greeted with the sweet smell of new paper! We managed to get the FTF and two others visited it later that day. If we hadn't stopped by on the way to our astronomy site, we wouldn't have gotten it.

 

I understand we have something in common, an enjoyment of caching with the NEFGA jeep club. We went on our first trip with their group on August 4th and had a ball and a very interesting day in our Cherokee that resulted in the placing of a cache in our honor, Dead Cherokee.

 

You might enjoy reading my log of the 'adventure' here!

 

The next time you're in NEFGA land, give us a holler. We'd love to meet you in person and go jeeping for cache!

Edited October 17, 2007 by Stargazer22

[+GrateBear]

I've sort of given up on FTFs, even though I have a few. Problem is, there are two cachers in my area who apparently have no lives and haunt the cache listings and head out as soon as a new cache is posted. And by that I mean even before the sun rises. And one of them often doesn't log their find until the next day.

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

For a while I was trying hard for FTFs, especially when I still had none. Now if they are convenient, I'll try for them (on the way home from work, etc). I don't rush out and drive 20 miles for them.

 

I have had some recently, but 2 of them were days after publication, so I definitely wasn't rushing out.

 

However, my best FTF was 8000 miles from home (as the crow flies - as the airplane flies, more like 12000!).

 

I was scheduled to go to Guam for work, so I looked at the listings. Sure enough, there was a new one recently published (Guam's First Coastie Cache). I kept hoping it would remain unfound, which it did, for over 2 weeks! I got to the cache, and WOOT! empty log book! That was a great moment.

[+Roland_oso]

I got a FTF during a recent trip to Washington State.

 

Here is a bookmark listing of my trip.

 

Been caching a little over 4 years and I think I have less than 10 FTFs.

[+Viajero Perdido]

I usually let FTFs go to folks who enjoy them, but... if a cache has gone a long time without being found, then I really want the FTF. The longer it's been with no find, the better. Almost pulled off a year-old FTF today, except we couldn't find it.

 

Next year when the mountain is in good condition I hope to co-FTF one that's been unfound since 2001. (At 7 years unfound - that would be W00T!)

[+Rattlebars]

I managed to snag FTF 1,000 miles from home when in Florida this year. Really liked the cache too (GC12J6K)

 

I have

[+LewisClan77]

I've got 148 FTFs since April 22nd...and YES I even tried to bargin for one...see post 11