Most memorable DNFs

[+team lagonda]

anyone can brag about thier finds.what are your most memorable dnfs ? what where the reasons ? forgot gps ? placer put in a realy stupid location ? longest hike only to come up dry ? the thing about a dnf is atleast you,ve learned where it isnt and what not to do,i guess thats something anyway.

[+Scooter Bill]

If you change Did Not Find to Did Not Finish, mine would be a multi that I did not finish after getting stung by a wasp on stage 4 of a 6 stage multi. I ended up in the emergency room after developing a rash from head to toe.

I still haven't finished that multi from 18 months ago.

[+KJcachers]

bird house 30' in the air with only a few brittle branches to be climbed. That one may be on my DNF list forever unless I get lucky and meet somebody with a ladder at the cache site. Not sure I agree with the finders that have 1 person climb up and drop the log down for everybody to sign. Almost penalizes me for caching alone. And did the non-climbers "really" make the find?

[+briansnat]

My trip to Bridge at Remagen was memorable.

 

March 20, 2003 by briansnat (615 found)

OK this one was a series of mistakes. First, I attempted it in the pouring rain on the way home from work, wearing a light jacket and my good khakis (mistake #1). I parked at the Amboy Cinema lot (Mistake #2, I could have parked much closer) and leaving my car, I noticed a pair of boots in the back. I decided to stick with the flat bottomed shoes I had worn to work (Mistake #3). I crossed a water filled ditch with a jump and climbed to the top of the berm and saw a sea of phragmites in front of me. I was about to turn around but didn't (mistake #4). Checking my watch, I noted that I had about a half hour before sunset but figured I could make it the quarter mile to the cache and back before it got dark (mistake #5).

 

I followed the berm as Marty suggested and turned off when the needle said it was .13 miles to my left. I paid no attention to the rain and the fact that I was getting soaked, because the cache was pretty close. I pushed my way through several thick stands of phragmites, but the relatively bare areas between them encouraged me to continue (mistake #6). My GPS was taking me to a spot that looked very promising, so I forged onward. I had picked out an obvious spot from 100 yards away and headed straight there, only to find that I was still 160 feet from the cache. I forced my way through yet another thick stand of phragmites and arrived at ground zero. I didn't find a tree, but there was a multi trunked sapling in an area that looked a bit like a crop circle.

 

By this time sunset was minutes away. I decided to continue searching (mistake #7), but came up empty. Since it was getting dark I thought it would be a good time to head back.

 

Instead of retracing my route, I hopped on a 4 wheeler trail that seemed to go in the direction of my car (mistake #8). The trail dead ended in, what else, another thick stand of phragmites. I heard Route 35 in the distance and decided to head straight to the road (mistake #9). I was getting close and had to climb a muddy and slick berm to get to my destination. Halfway up, I slipped and impaled my hand on a stick, or something. I continued to the top and noticed blood gushing from my hand (Yuk).

 

Reaching the top, I saw my car about 100 yards away...yeee haa! But wait, there was a body of water and a very thick stand of phragmites between me and my car. I checked the water and it was at least knee deep and I was certain the mud below was even deeper, so I tried to find a way around. At this point, the phragmites were so thick, I could hardly move. With each step forward, I'd slide two steps back because of the mud and my dogone shoes. By this time, I was literally soaked to the skin and it was dark. I reached the top of the berm and although the phragmites were thick, at least it wasn't too muddy, so I stuck with it and headed towards Route 35.

 

Climbing down from the berm, I glanced down at my pants and noticed my left leg was red with blood (ya mix blood with a little water and it always looks a lot worse than it is). Now I had to walk along the highway, literally covered with blood and mud, hoping nobody would notice me and call the cops (Hello officer, there is a man walking along the highway, covered in mud with blood pouring from his hand). I got back to the car and found it was now sitting in a pool of water about 5 inches deep (mistake #...heck, I've lost count).

 

I searched the back for something to stem the bleeding and found a box of tissues that I accidently left in the car after a recent shopping trip (a good mistake, so I won't count it as one).

 

After the application of direct pressure had its desired effect, I was able to get in the car and head home. Luckily, my wife was out with a friend, because she would have really freaked when I walked in the door. Thanks Marty for an interesting evening! Now how am I gonna get those pants clean?!

 

[+hukilaulau]

3000 foot elevation gain in 2 miles. But it was a great hike and the view from the top was spectacular. Also there were several other caches on the way up so the trip was a success from a caching perspective aswell!

[+briansnat]

Oh and my mid winter overnighter with the wrong sleeping bag, going after The Rocky Lounge was pretty memorable.

 

Log

[+KJcachers]

Oh and my mid winter overnighter with the wrong sleeping bag, going after The Rocky Lounge was pretty memorable.

 

Log

 

Brian,

It seems your Bridge at Remagen cache has been archived "due to lack of interest". Just because it hadn't been found in 2 years shouldn't be reason to kill it. Too bad, from the sounds of your adventure I would think others might be interested in making the trip.

Edited February 12, 2008 by KJcachers

[+team lagonda]

i could of wrote a book on some puzzle caches as dnfs..they were written in hobbit,some in some ancient welsh languge..guess i,ll have to wait for someone else to find these when theres snow on the ground befor i find them..

Edited February 12, 2008 by team lagonda

[+team lagonda]

oops,,double posted..

Edited February 12, 2008 by team lagonda

[+StarBrand]

Lack of battery power........time, patience.

 

July 20, 2006 by StarBrand (673 found)

Sometimes I just feel like a rookie cacher out on my first hunt. After 4 and half years I should know better. Thought I would grab this one over the lunch hour today. On the way over to Mitchell from Scottsbluff, the batteries die in the GPS. No problem, I grab the car charger and some AA rechargeables and plug it into the cig lighter. Grabbed something to eat so I could give the batteries a few minutes to charge (after all I just needed them for a few minutes - right??). Put the batteries in and navigated my way over to the parking. Jumped out, got within 120 feet and the GPS screen goes blank. Sigh. No problem, just estimate the distance and search. So I did. 10 minutes of frustration later, decided to try the battery trick again. Waited 10 minutes and went hunting. Battery attempt #2 lasted all of 30 seconds - got me to about 75 feet away. Ok - near enough to the first area so I plunged in and tried again. 5 minutes later two young boys walking by ask "what are you doing?" - so I backed off until they moved on. It was about then that the rain started. I ran back to the Jeep and waited about 3 minutes and gave up. About 100 yards down the road - the rain stopped. Sigh. Got back out and ran over to the area. About then I realized that I only had 15 minutes to get back to work in Scottsbluff. Ran back to the Jeep and left. There is always tomorrow......

[+team lagonda]

lets not forget the micro needle in the haystack ones..

[+briansnat]

Oh and my mid winter overnighter with the wrong sleeping bag, going after The Rocky Lounge was pretty memorable.

 

Log

 

Brian,

It seems your Bridge at Remagen cache has been archived "due to lack of interest". Just because it hadn't been found in 2 years shouldn't be reason to kill it. Too bad, from the sounds of your adventure I would think others might be interested in making the trip.

 

Yeah, I was bummed when it was archived. I always meant to go back. In the daytime... when it wasn't pouring...not wearing penny loafers and khakis.

[+FatherAndProgeny]

Memorable or Embarassing. The later for me made this memorable. At Minnie's Mouse Hole

 

The day is bright and sunny. That is the only part that reminds me of my home in Florida. It is 26 degrees out. I must be amost brain dead to spend 45 minutes in the frozen north trying to find this.

 

Ok, 45 is enough time, I head back to the car to pull out the laptop to see what I am missing. Apparently I just can't seem to find it. Everyone else has a quick find, easy find, did not take long.... What am I doing wrong?

 

So I lock the car and get out to hunt a bit more. While walking to the site, I do not feel my car keys in my pocket. I rush back to the car to see that when I pulled out the laptop, I set the keys down on the seat instead of in my pocket. AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

 

I get out my cell and call progeny who is home studying for school. Please come rescue your father before I freeze to death. (I would do this in sub freezing weather. Why can't I lock myself out when it is warm?)

 

Ok, he will be here in an hour. So, I have a long time to do a diligent and methodical search. The wind is brisk, the ground is frozen, the 10 billion cat briars surrounding the area keep finding new ways to snag my clothes and the cache remains undetectable.

 

Progeny comes along after a little longer than an hour. So with 2 hours on site, I think this one is MIA. Also I ran into 2lilpiggies later on in the day. I told them where I was searching and between us I think this one is really gone. Either that or I am totally blind.

[knowschad]

Two come to immediately mind, both from a trip I took the the Black Hills last October.

 

This one was in Sioux Falls on my way to the Black Hills. Just a Mr Magneto (a "Blinky" in their terms) on a steel bridge, but the atmosphere was what made it so great! Brown Bridge

 

and in Spearfish Canyon, after a long rough drive on an old narrow gauge railroad bed followed by a long uphill walk along same, and two deep, dangerous gorges, I found myself at the top of the mountains, but with my GPSr pushing me around a 200' area, with no cache to be found, but what an experience it was! Annie Creek Railroad Cache

Edited February 13, 2008 by knowschad

[+doingitoldschool]

My most memorable DNF thus far in my expansive geocaching experience (36 finds ) is when I spent 10 minutes inspecting the nether regions of a 20 foot gnome. It is an easy drive up, but the cache is tucked somewhere in the gnome's private area. My wife took pictures of me giving the DRE to the hapless fellow, and I'm sure he was smiling when I left.

 

I have put the link below - it's name is "Giant Dwarf"

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...98-a0efa97f49a0

[knowschad]

My most memorable DNF thus far in my expansive geocaching experience (36 finds ) is when I spent 10 minutes inspecting the nether regions of a 20 foot gnome. It is an easy drive up, but the cache is tucked somewhere in the gnome's private area. My wife took pictures of me giving the DRE to the hapless fellow, and I'm sure he was smiling when I left.

 

I have put the link below - it's name is "Giant Dwarf"

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...98-a0efa97f49a0

 

That's just too funny! But two questions: 1) how do you know that it's in the gnome's private areas if you didn't find it, and 2) why didn't you post a DNF log? (ha! BUSTED!! )

[knowschad]

My most memorable DNF thus far in my expansive geocaching experience (36 finds ) is when I spent 10 minutes inspecting the nether regions of a 20 foot gnome. It is an easy drive up, but the cache is tucked somewhere in the gnome's private area. My wife took pictures of me giving the DRE to the hapless fellow, and I'm sure he was smiling when I left.

 

I have put the link below - it's name is "Giant Dwarf"

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...98-a0efa97f49a0

 

That's just too funny! But two questions: 1) how do you know that it's in the gnome's private areas if you didn't find it, and 2) why didn't you post a DNF log? (ha! BUSTED!! )

[+Happy Humphrey]

I posted this on the UK forum, but it seems to be tailor-made for this thread so I think it's worth repeating.

 

Obviously, I didn’t set out to log a DNF: it was supposed to be a glorious “Found It” smiley. The cache is now archived, so I’m able to relate the details of how I - with a little help - almost found it.

 

The tale (of woe) began one evening back in 2004 when I began planning a trip to the Black Forest in Germany. Although I’d been to the area once, we had but a brief glimpse of some superb scenery as we drove by en route to Strasbourg and eventually Calais. Though not obviously spectacular, it had a certain open and fresh character allied to some dark and brooding forest. So I was keen to return and take in the unique atmosphere of the Schwarzwald: and now I was into geocaching, what better way to get to know the area on a short visit than by selecting a few of the best caches in the district. So as part of the trip planning, I spent a few hours browsing through the Schwarzwald caches trying to select an assortment of interesting ones to attempt.

 

Somewhere in this browsing I came across an unusual puzzle which had me intrigued. Magisches Viereck, by someone called “Prinzessin aus Haithabu”. Now, the profile might get you intrigued for different reasons, but at the time there was only a strange photo and it was the cache itself that was of interest.

 

First problem, the description was all in German. I know a bit of French, but hardly a word of German – so it was out with the translation tool, which did translate (in a fashion). Not much help, although I could get the gist of it. The first section is a short poem, something to do with Norse legend from the look of it. After that is a tale written from the point of view of a princess. Nothing to actually give a hint as to the whereabouts of the cache, which is described as a multicache but appears more like a mystery cache: the coordinates point to the middle of a lake. There’s a “Treasure Map” (Schatzkarte) attached, which only adds to the mystery;

Why all the Runic characters? What have all the animal figures got to do with it? I suspected that the wiggly lines would be the key: perhaps it was to be overlaid on another map, and the squiggles would match rivers (or roads, or boundaries). Looking through all the logs from the few successful teams, it seemed that an overlay was the answer.

 

I had a detailed map of the area and tried to identify the overlay area. This was a real needle and haystack affair, as the overlay gives you no idea of scale (or so I thought). Even if you succeed in the overlay department: what are the other symbols going to tell you? I couldn’t imagine.

 

As time went on and the Germany departure approached, I got nowhere with the puzzle. I tried a couple of trusted (and very clever) cachers with the problem, to no avail. The late Bill Hemphill (Team Ullium) did translate the German: I think pretty well;

 

Do you know how to scratch?

Do you know how to guess?

Do you know how to find?

Do you know how to investigate to learn?

Do you know how to ask?

Do you chance to be a victim?

Do you know how to send,

do you know how to delete?

 

I am Atir, princess from Haithabu.

The powerful Magician Gorm wanted to kidnap me from my father's castle and chain me to his bed as his slave.

But the wise raven Mumin warned me that night and taught me a little magic rythm and remained to say to my nurse Ragna find me no time, my family, my loyal, farewell, no time to choose a proper robe in place of the thin delicate nightgown only time to quickly say the magic words.... and I find myself in a strangely nocturnal light, a rustling and sighs in the air.

I hear human voices, someone puts me a coat around my shoulders.

Thus began my exile.

It is a strange, an agitated, a greedy world.

For weeks I have wandered lost in the forests.

I had to hide my casket and my distinguished garb, so that no one would take them away from me.

I pray to the Gods that they show me how I can safely find my way home.

What did I do wrong when I cast my spell?

I dreamed tonight that I could return home if 23 brave and honorable searchers find my casket and everyone of them wrote a dedication into my small booklet, not enough hereby:

Everyone of them must insert a trinket and carry one forward, as a talisman.

The 23 brave and respectable searchers are also to leave a copy of themselves by the most careful artist whom they can find, dressed in my flax nightgown.

The 23 images must be displayed then in such a way that all the humans in the whole new world can look at them....

So that this can become true, I drew a treasure map to the best of my knowledge from the memory.

 

Eventually I went to the Black Forest with no idea about the cache, so didn’t attempt it – but that was far from being the end of the story. One of the caches we succeeded on was near Baden-Baden, called “Templar’s Mystery”. Despite some careful preparation, we had a bit of a struggle with the projection and had to ask local cacher Gerhard (“Asa”) for assistance. He kindly helped us out: and on return to the Isle of Man I e-mailed to thank him, and asked if he would have a look at Magisches Viereck.

 

In 2005 Gerhard logged Magisches Viereck. Many of the early finders seemed to have been working as a team, so I wasn’t too shy to ask Gerhard for a little pointer in the right direction. He gave me the crucial information that the animal characters relate to villages with animals in their names: an example being "Hundsrucken".

 

He also mentioned that it IS a multicache, but hardly any of the stages are findable – so I was going to have to deduce the final cache position with minimal data. He said that he’d worked out the cache position using local knowledge gained from finding part of another multicache nearby, and that it was near a hunter’s cabin in the forest (there are hundreds of these and thousands of acres of forest, so it was hardly a spoiler!).

 

With the animal names, I soon identified the general area of the map and the scale. Quickly, I scanned the Schwarzwald map and overlaid the Schatzkarte in Photoshop. With a few minutes spent sliding the two layers around, I managed to get the “wiggles” to match sections of road. Bingo!

 

 

But now what? The role of the animal names and wiggly lines was known: this left the Rune symbols. I guessed that these had to be put into alphabetical order – and then you had to go to the locations and find the numbers that would give the coordinates of the cache. That would be tricky: because of the map scale, each symbol covered quite a large area. Even if all the parts were in place, it may take days to locate a lot of microcaches with such vague instructions. I was fairly confident that I would never get to all the locations and get time to search for more than a few minutes. Even finding a micro where the GPS coordinates are a few metres out can be pretty challenging. This was hopeless!

 

But I did have another visit to the Black Forest planned. Was there a chance of getting to the cache area: yes. Did I have enough to locate a small box hidden somewhere in the forest: certainly, no, but perhaps a study of the log photos from various attempts would help. They did serve to eliminate some possible locations: and re-reading the logs, a few other pointers emerged. Firstly, there was another mention of someone knowing the area after finding a different multicache there. So I checked the profiles of the finders, and noted which multicaches they’d logged in the area. Most people seemed to have logged one of two particular ones, and assuming that one of these was the multicache in question I could also gain the same local knowledge by finding this cache. I felt that I’d pinned the location down to a few square miles of forest now (!). My gut feeling was that a cache called Circles and Line was the neighbour to Magisches Viereck, so I put it on the list of caches to attempt. The plan was to keep my eyes open when following this one, and check out any hunter’s cabins encountered on the journey around the cache stages. But I realised that C&L is a long and difficult cache and there would be many possible search areas on the way, so even if I’d deduced correctly it would be a long shot (to say the least).

 

The other information that Gerhard had furnished me with was that a clue to the exact position of the Magisches Viereck box was given away in a couple of the log photos. But you had to reverse the photos (make them into a negative), whence appeared a few extra details. A wire fence, a distinctive tree. Not much.

 

In January 2006, a cacher going under the name VidasKasko found it, and uploaded a couple of very useful photos. Although he looks like a bit of a perv from the poses, there was a good background view of the fence and the edge of trees. Wow – a fence and some trees, somewhere in the Black Forest: I just had to spot the correct ones!

 

No further clues presented themselves, despite a couple more finds, and in April 2006 I set off with Mrs. Humphrey for a long weekend in Germany. With so little to go on I wasn’t expecting to be able to log anything for Magisches Viereck, as it was unlikely that we’d come across any part of the cache or even begin to search. I was going to concentrate on the other caches rather than waste too much time on a fruitless long-shot. But just in case, I started with the multicache that I felt held the clue to Magisches Viereck.

 

So we parked next to a children’s playground near the village of Pfalzgrafen-weiler and walked downhill along a pleasant little lane. After ten minutes through fields, we entered dark woodland. A bit of forest up the bank to the right shaded the GPS signal, and I climbed up to check our location. In front, a hunter’s cabin. At the side, a clear meadow with just the right type of fence! I helped Mrs. Humphrey to the top of the slope, and from my rucksack retrieved the prints of various log photos that I’d brought along.

 

After a few minutes, we had the exact view of the background of VidasKasko’s photo – I knew we were in the right place.

 

 

There was a hunter’s observation tower here as well, and part of one of the legs of the tower appeared in a photo with two cachers opening the box. This was it! Now it was the simple matter of locating the box itself.

 

Two hours later, we were still combing the area around the tower and had found nothing. But surely we were fated to find it, having got so close? Or perhaps the cache had gone? The only options were to give up, or appeal for a hint so that we could return another day and try again. If I could assure Gerhard that we were in the correct area, I felt that we would receive a helping hand – so an e-mail describing the cache zone was fired off whilst we continued our fruitless search.

 

A couple of days later we returned, armed with the information that the cache was under a flat stone (in the area we’d already searched so diligently). A thorough search turned up nothing. Bitterly disappointed, I had to admit defeat. Perhaps I could have another look sometime in the future: or more likely, the cache was gone. In a way it would have been easier to accept had the location of the cache eluded me altogether: it was frustrating to get so close, a bit like almost catching a record fish on your first cast but then losing it at the landing net.

 

In July 2006, just to rub it in, “DG1GPX” found the cache at his second attempt. So it was still there. And to cap it all, in August 2006, Gerhard checked the cache and it had gone. As the cache owner seems to have given up long ago, there is no hope of it being reinstated.

 

Oh well, good thing I didn’t spend too much time on it!

[+Markwell]

short but sweet

[+doingitoldschool]

My most memorable DNF thus far in my expansive geocaching experience (36 finds ) is when I spent 10 minutes inspecting the nether regions of a 20 foot gnome. It is an easy drive up, but the cache is tucked somewhere in the gnome's private area. My wife took pictures of me giving the DRE to the hapless fellow, and I'm sure he was smiling when I left.

 

I have put the link below - it's name is "Giant Dwarf"

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...98-a0efa97f49a0

 

That's just too funny! But two questions: 1) how do you know that it's in the gnome's private areas if you didn't find it, and 2) why didn't you post a DNF log? (ha! BUSTED!! )

 

The logs made it pretty clear thats where the cache should be. As for making it an offically posted DNF, you are absolutely right - I was thinking about posting one with my wife's pics, but I sent a email to the cache owner instead. In my email I ask her "front or back?!?!" DNF is now up, with pic...

Edited February 14, 2008 by doingitoldschool

[+Happy Humphrey]

The logs made it pretty clear thats where the cache should be. As for making it an offically posted DNF, you are absolutely right - I was thinking about posting one with my wife's pics, but I sent a email to the cache owner instead. In my email I ask her "front or back?!?!" DNF is now up, with pic...

That's now on my "to do" list: luckily I'll have Mrs.Humphrey with me when I visit in June, and she'll get instructed to perform the search!

[+DonB]

My trip to Bridge at Remagen was memorable.

 

March 20, 2003 by briansnat (615 found)

OK this one was a series of mistakes. First, I attempted it in the pouring rain on the way home from work, wearing a light jacket and my good khakis (mistake #1). I parked at the Amboy Cinema lot (Mistake #2, I could have parked much closer) and leaving my car, I noticed a pair of boots in the back. I decided to stick with the flat bottomed shoes I had worn to work (Mistake #3). I crossed a water filled ditch with a jump and climbed to the top of the berm and saw a sea of phragmites in front of me. I was about to turn around but didn't (mistake #4). Checking my watch, I noted that I had about a half hour before sunset but figured I could make it the quarter mile to the cache and back before it got dark (mistake #5).

 

I followed the berm as Marty suggested and turned off when the needle said it was .13 miles to my left. I paid no attention to the rain and the fact that I was getting soaked, because the cache was pretty close. I pushed my way through several thick stands of phragmites, but the relatively bare areas between them encouraged me to continue (mistake #6). My GPS was taking me to a spot that looked very promising, so I forged onward. I had picked out an obvious spot from 100 yards away and headed straight there, only to find that I was still 160 feet from the cache. I forced my way through yet another thick stand of phragmites and arrived at ground zero. I didn't find a tree, but there was a multi trunked sapling in an area that looked a bit like a crop circle.

 

By this time sunset was minutes away. I decided to continue searching (mistake #7), but came up empty. Since it was getting dark I thought it would be a good time to head back.

 

Instead of retracing my route, I hopped on a 4 wheeler trail that seemed to go in the direction of my car (mistake #8). The trail dead ended in, what else, another thick stand of phragmites. I heard Route 35 in the distance and decided to head straight to the road (mistake #9). I was getting close and had to climb a muddy and slick berm to get to my destination. Halfway up, I slipped and impaled my hand on a stick, or something. I continued to the top and noticed blood gushing from my hand (Yuk).

 

Reaching the top, I saw my car about 100 yards away...yeee haa! But wait, there was a body of water and a very thick stand of phragmites between me and my car. I checked the water and it was at least knee deep and I was certain the mud below was even deeper, so I tried to find a way around. At this point, the phragmites were so thick, I could hardly move. With each step forward, I'd slide two steps back because of the mud and my dogone shoes. By this time, I was literally soaked to the skin and it was dark. I reached the top of the berm and although the phragmites were thick, at least it wasn't too muddy, so I stuck with it and headed towards Route 35.

 

Climbing down from the berm, I glanced down at my pants and noticed my left leg was red with blood (ya mix blood with a little water and it always looks a lot worse than it is). Now I had to walk along the highway, literally covered with blood and mud, hoping nobody would notice me and call the cops (Hello officer, there is a man walking along the highway, covered in mud with blood pouring from his hand). I got back to the car and found it was now sitting in a pool of water about 5 inches deep (mistake #...heck, I've lost count).

 

I searched the back for something to stem the bleeding and found a box of tissues that I accidently left in the car after a recent shopping trip (a good mistake, so I won't count it as one).

 

After the application of direct pressure had its desired effect, I was able to get in the car and head home. Luckily, my wife was out with a friend, because she would have really freaked when I walked in the door. Thanks Marty for an interesting evening! Now how am I gonna get those pants clean?!

 

You should win some kind of geocaching award for that one! That's going to be pretty hard to top.

[+gvsu4msu]

Here is my first DNF

 

GC18XB7

 

[+MarshMonsters]

Our first DNF was a stupid mistake on my part. We decided to to search for a micro at night. We get to the area and we knew approximately where it was...but I check my pack and see that I forgot to pack a flashlight . DOH! When we came back to the spot a week later with a flashlight it was found in no time! Now I make sure that everything in my pack is in order before we search for a cache.

[+JennM]

This one was a DNF for about 27 of us or thereabouts...and then it had to be archived without a single find.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...6b-20b2c44084b6

 

Jenn

[+The Jester]

My most memorable DNF? I'd say this one. NOT a happy memory...

[+izzyvet]

My most memorable was just recently, looking for this cache Mise en Place I was really stupid and made some assumptions about where the cache should be. Ended up struggling through literally waist deep snow to try to find a cache that wasn't there! Really put a kink in my whole ski day. Then a few hours later I couldn't find this one either Lights and Music By now I am ready to give up Geocaching forever. So I put them both on my watchlist. Then while trying to get to sleep that night I had a light bulb go off, and an "Oh Duh" moment and figured out how to find the first cache. Still haven't found the second one, although someone else has found it (of course). I just know if I go back to look for it, I'll end up with a second DNF, but that one might be memorable too.

[+Team Black-Cat]

I would like it known that Team Black-Cat finds everything we search for.

 

Actually, the most recent DNF was yesterday afternoon. My daughter and I were out with a caching buddy. The couple of feet of fluffy snow made every cache a 3+ terrain. My friend was about 60 feet away when I heard him hell "whoa!". When I looked, he was sunk almost chest deep in the snow. An old house foundation had completly drifted in and there was no hint of it's location until his mistep. I, of course, did not have a camera handy.

Edited February 17, 2008 by Team Black-Cat

[+TexasGringo]

I spent a good hour looking for a cache in every possible spot...NOTHING could have escaped my eyes....except for maybe entering the correct coordinates.

[+Bunganator]

3 new caches 3 miles from my college. I don't have a car, only a bike. I depart about 4 in the afternoon. Two miles from school, it starts to rain really hard. Within minutes I am soaked, so there is no point in stopping. I couldn't keep satellites for the life of me and I DNFed all three.

[+Redbaroness]

Taxi Please! at the Aquarius in Laughlin. It was a cold, windy afternoon just before Christmas, and I was out caching with my son. Didn't locate it on the walk south to the River Palms hotel, so we tried it again on the way back to the Riverside Hotel. My son decided to capture my geocaching experience on his new phone with camera, and the shots weren't exactly flattering, but the last straw was as I was lying on the sidewalk looking under a trash can and suddenly from no where security rides up on a bike and asks if everything is ok. My son replied, "She's just looking for food." Couldn't say I'd lost a contact or something. All those years of private school I paid for and this was the best he could come up with! I was back on my feet in a second and back on my way to our hotel.

[+doingitoldschool]

My most memorable DNF thus far in my expansive geocaching experience (36 finds ) is when I spent 10 minutes inspecting the nether regions of a 20 foot gnome. It is an easy drive up, but the cache is tucked somewhere in the gnome's private area. My wife took pictures of me giving the DRE to the hapless fellow, and I'm sure he was smiling when I left.

 

I have put the link below - it's name is "Giant Dwarf"

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...98-a0efa97f49a0

 

That's just too funny! But two questions: 1) how do you know that it's in the gnome's private areas if you didn't find it, and 2) why didn't you post a DNF log? (ha! BUSTED!! )

 

The logs made it pretty clear thats where the cache should be. As for making it an offically posted DNF, you are absolutely right - I was thinking about posting one with my wife's pics, but I sent a email to the cache owner instead. In my email I ask her "front or back?!?!" DNF is now up, with pic...

 

I am proud to report that this is a DNF no longer

[+JohnnyVegas]

My most memorable DNF.

It was many years ago, one of my first DNFs. I was using the basic yellow e-trex.

Well I get to the trail head and I start my search, off I go up the hill following the trail. Once I get around the hill I realize the trail is a loop and I see the pointer pointing off to my right. Towards another hill, up that hill I go for about another 30 minutes and the GPS shows GZ to be by one of those large miniciple water tanks, but if has about a 10 foot fence around on one side, the other side of the hill was dug out to build the tank. So I decide to try getting down the hill with out killing myself, which I did because I am writing this. Of course I kind of slid/fell down the side of the hill. So now I start ym search for the cache, not giving any thought to how I am going to get out of this little hillside jail. So after sending a long time searching for the cache I decide it is time to give up and go home. So I thought I soon realized I was traped with no way out of this hillside jail. And this was not anyplace anyone would hike to. I tried climbing up the hill several times only to just slide back down into the jail. I did not have a cell phone, I left my ham radio at home and I had no matches to build a fire and send smoke signals. Ah!! but then I remembered I had my leatherman tool, what luck, after about 30 minutes I was able to take the gate off of my jail and make my escape. Then I get home and I checked the cache page, I entered the coordinates manualy and I was off by 3 miles. The cache was also a drive up rated as a one for terrain Doh! It never occured to me that the terrian rating did not match were I was going, of course I was to cheap to print out the cache page.

That night I learned how to load my GPS with easy GPS. This was also when I started print out cache pages.

Edited February 26, 2008 by JohnnyVegas

[+ironman114]

I think my most memorable is the one from last Friday

 

My truck stuck in deep snow just 100 feet from the cache, Vomiting and diarrhea from some bad oysters from dinner, six hours of digging just to get stuck again at 2:00 am and a 5 mile hike out for help after 3 hours of sleep.