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Bummer day...big ofer for newbie


oldskoolboarder

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My first day out was pretty uneventful too.

 

Remember two basic facts.

 

1: Your GPSr usually only gets you within about 30 feet of the cache. From there, its a HUNT. DO NOT focus ONLY on where the GPSr points, or you're sure to get skunked.

 

2: Caches are hidden, or camoflaged, or both. That's why it's a good idea to look for 1/1 regular or large caches at first. I've actually stepped on caches without knowing it!

 

Good luck.

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Don't let it bring you down. When the GPSr says you are within 15 to 20 feet, put it away and start looking for likely hiding spots. Stick to regular or large size ones at first. Think like a hider, ask where you would hide something. Look for unusual things. Out of place things. Things that are not quite natural. Look for footprints where somebody stood. Look for unusual piles of grass, twigs, sticks, rocks, leaves etc.., think vertical, not all caches are on the ground. Look for magnetic containers. Feel where you can't look. As above be prepared to hunt within 20-40 feet of where your GPS says ground zero is.

 

Above all - have fun at it!!!

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That is a bummer and I've been there. Our first day out was 0 for 3. I realized I needed a different GPS. Got a hand held and tried again - two weeks later we're up to 14. Micros are a real pain to find and I'd stick to the easier ones first. You'll learn a lot and get progressively better after finding a few. One thing that helped me was to go online to some retailers who sell cache containers. Then I had a basic idea what to look for, although it's just a guideline. There are some really creative people hiding caches!

 

Hang in there! :D And let us know when you find some!

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Yeah, we may try tomorrow with more "urban" caches.

 

Sad thing was that most of these weren't micro caches. Most of were medium/small tupperware containers which I was shocked we couldn't find. We did do a bigger area search as I know GPS coordinates aren't accurate. I do understand that the originator may have also had an inaccurate GPS.

 

Bummer but we won't give up. It was still kinda fun "thinking" we could find it...

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The very first time Bear and I went out we walked and walked and never found the cache. We were very disappointed. Then after I posted a DNF, one nice cacher pointed out that we were looking for a high difficulty level, kind of advanced for newbies. Try Try again. It's too fun. Spouse and I go out as often as we can and sometimes do good and sometimes no.

And you are right about the rain--it will mess up the GPS. At least it affects mine. I didn't read what state you were in but here in Texas the best time to cache is wintertime. No PI, PO, trees coverage low and no snakes and that's my personal favorite.

Also, after much effort on our part, we spin stuff to a palm, carry paperless cache notes and can check hints and logs on the fly. That really increases our accuracy. Too Fun too Cache.

 

:laughing:

Edited by Bear5719
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First times can be tough, but it'll get better! I think everyone has given you good advice-stay simple at first with regular size caches. Think along the lines of were you would hide "it" if you were putting out a cache. Under logs, trees, or in fallen trees, under piles of sticks. Don't forget to look up, I have one of mine hanging from a tree branch. Have fun, and don't give up. Remember to enjoy the scenery! :laughing:

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My family and I just got into GC'ing recently...I've got an E-trex but haven't spent much time learning how to use it...

 

The very first cache we looked for- we found...well, my wife found...Inside an old wooden fence post!

 

Having our 4 and 2 year olds along certainly doesn't make hunting any easier...

 

How can I be sure that the caches we are looking for are "larger" and truly "kid friendly"?

 

Caches hidden deep in woods with briars/fallen trees/etc. are NOT what we're looking for!

 

Is there a way to ONLY look for really "kid friendly"?

 

R Lewis

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Look on geocaching.com for caches in some areas that you ALREADY know really well- whether that be urban, rural or forest. (Ours were a few little parks/walks in our small semi-rural town) Read the descriptions, hints, logs until you find a cache in your well known area that has you practically saying 'I could find that without a GPS!' Then go looking.

We did this when we started - in fact found our first 4 caches without a GPS at all, just local knowledge and caches that had pretty clear hints/descriptions. Then we got addicted, went to the city, brought our GPS, and found our first city cache the same way (it was a Virtual tho) - an area that we already had throughly explored previously.

 

Of course - that idea is a no-go :laughing: if your locality is a bit less dense with caches than ours. ;)

 

And as others have said - check that you have the correct map datum set.

 

Good luck and hoping that you have success on your next outing.

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I thought map datum only mattered if you were navigating off a map.

 

If you have a Garmin - go to the 'Main Menu' page, then 'setup' then 'units' and look at the scroll down menu for the 'Map datum' field! Your GPS will display the co-ords any number of ways, if you so choose, but for the purposes of geocaching the map datum field needs to be set to WGS-84 (and the 'position format' to hddd mm.mmm' ) as that is the map datum that is used for co-ords at geo-caching.com, as it is kind of like the world-wide standard. If I used the New Zealand map datum that our (well, at least, my husband's) New Zealand topo maps that we refer to for walking and hiking are based on, I would be several hundred metres out for geocaching.

 

So if we are using a map and compass for walking/hiking etc we would use the local datum, as that is what all the local guide books, rescue services etc etc use, and if geocaching use WGS-84 as that is the world-wide standard that geocaching.com uses.

 

If your GPS is not set to the correct datum, you will be looking for caches at least a few hundred metres from where they are.

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How can I be sure that the caches we are looking for are "larger" and truly "kid friendly"?

 

Caches hidden deep in woods with briars/fallen trees/etc. are NOT what we're looking for!

 

Is there a way to ONLY look for really "kid friendly"?

 

R Lewis

 

When you are looking at the cache page at geocaching.com, if you look just below the title/name of the cache, then just bleow that it says 'a cache by ...... whoever' well, just below that it tells you the cache size, terrain and overall difficulty. You probably need to try some that are 'regular' size and terrain of 1 or 1.5 and difficulty the same.

 

Over on the left hand side of the page at the top there is 'navigation' (the box where you go to log etc), then the little map, then 'watched by' then the attributes. For kid friendly caches you need to look for the attributesymbol of the little girl with a flower in her hair. There is also a picture of a stroller if you need to be able to use a stroller too. Also look out for the wheelchair accessible caches - shown by the wheeelchair symbol - you can be sure that the terrain for those will be pretty easy going for little kids too.

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:unsure: Welcome! Don't give up.My first cache hunt was unsuccessful also.Some good advice above.I might add don't overthing things.On my first hunt I spent close to an hour off a trail crashing through brush looking for the cache convinced thats where it had to be.Never once thinking it could be on the other side of the trail which is where it was.Well hidden but not in the pricker bushes I thought it was.I good thing to think is "Where would I hide it?" Thats usually where it is.
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Much better today.

 

We chose the "easy" ones near our house, more urban. Our 5 yr old found the first one and she was psyched. Both the wife and I said, this is what it should feel like to do this.

 

Went to the 2nd one and found it. But then we went 0 for 2 on the next 2. Oh well, we'll go back and try those again when the leaves clear up.

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I feel your pain. First day for me and I went ofer 4. I even went back to one for a second time. It should have been easy. It was at the end of a pier. The whole pier isn't more than 25 feet wide. You'd think I would have stumbled on it eventually! Well, tomorrow's another day! Keep looking :huh:

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For whatever consolation - all of us have had days we've been skunked (didn't find any). Try again in better weather!

 

Enjoy,

Outspoken1

After three years and 1400+ finds, I just had an "ofer" day that was a lot of fun! I was on the way back from a Vermont ski trip and stopped in a small town to look for a few... I saw an interesting "public tomb" and a fantastic swaying footbridge over a frozen river. i didn't find either cache but it was the best part of the whole trip!

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