How long do you spend trying for a cache -

[+bigdogsrule]

I am new to caching and have found myself looking for an hour or more for one cache. I am wondering at what point people give up and try again another day. I have gone to the logs for some and said that I did not find and was puzzled and have gotten some extra help kindly provided by cache owners, but I am just wondering if perhaps if it takes more than an hour that maybe the cache is at too high a difficultly level for me and I should stick to easier ones (re: difficulty level)??

Also, I have found that some seem to be located within a ring of poison ivy or so carefully hidden under vegetation that perhaps they would be easier to spot in fall or winter, so plan to return and look for them then. Do other people do this too?

 

Thanks for any hints as I find I am getting better at it but sure feel idiotic sometimes when I read someone found a cache immediately and I looked for an hour with my GPSr saying it was 5 feet away and still couldn't find it..........

 

Frustrated in Maryland

Frances (bigdogsrule)

Edited September 13, 2008 by bigdogsrule

[+TrailGators]

I am new to caching and have found myself looking for an hour or more for one cache. I am wondering at what point people give up and try again another day. I have gone to the logs for some and said that I did not find and was puzzled and have gotten some extra help kindly provided by cache owners, but I am just wondering if perhaps if it takes more than an hour that maybe the cache is at too high a difficultly level for me and I should stick to easier ones (re: difficulty level)??

Also, I have found that some seem to be located within a ring of poison ivy or so carefully hidden under vegetation that perhaps they would be easier to spot in fall or winter, so plan to return and look for them then. Do other people do this too?

 

Thanks for any hints as I find I am getting better at it but sure feel idiotic sometimes when I read someone found a cache immediately and I looked for an hour with my GPSr saying it was 5 feet away and still couldn't find it..........

 

Frustrated in Maryland

Frances (bigdogsrule)

If you are under tree cover your GPS could be way off. This could have happened to the person that hid the cache too. Check the logs for evidence of this. I typically give it 30 minutes. I will look longer if it took me longer to get to the cache and visa versa. Edited September 13, 2008 by TrailGators

[+gageplate]

I am new to caching and have found myself looking for an hour or more for one cache. I am wondering at what point people give up and try again another day. I have gone to the logs for some and said that I did not find and was puzzled and have gotten some extra help kindly provided by cache owners, but I am just wondering if perhaps if it takes more than an hour that maybe the cache is at too high a difficultly level for me and I should stick to easier ones (re: difficulty level)??

Also, I have found that some seem to be located within a ring of poison ivy or so carefully hidden under vegetation that perhaps they would be easier to spot in fall or winter, so plan to return and look for them then. Do other people do this too?

 

Thanks for any hints as I find I am getting better at it but sure feel idiotic sometimes when I read someone found a cache immediately and I looked for an hour with my GPSr saying it was 5 feet away and still couldn't find it..........

 

Frustrated in Maryland

Frances (bigdogsrule)

[+gageplate]

I try not to spend an hour. The max i would spend would be one minute.

[+The Leprechauns]

How long is too long? I leave the minute when I'm no longer having fun.

 

That can be five minutes, like if a muggle is giving me the evil eye, or I'm searching through a trash heap and wondering why the cache owner brought me to that spot.

 

That can be an hour or more, like a difficulty five hide on a trail bridge over a babbling brook, or for a cache in an oceanfront breakwater with a beautiful view. My daughter did not want to leave that breakwater, she was having too much fun taking pictures of seagulls. So, I kept looking. I learned later that the cache was missing. Who cares?

Edited September 13, 2008 by The Leprechauns

[+ventura_kids]

I'm quite certain the rule is 7 minutes.

[+Headhardhat]

I found all the variety of responses to this thread rather interesting. For me I go through several "stages" of determination when finding a cache. I usually have an "awe screw it" moment at least three times before giving up. I usually find it at the third moment.

 

Difficulty below a 2.5 = 15 minutes

 

Anything higher than a 2 = 15 minutes to an hour depending on the fun factor.

 

FTF = Anything goes.

 

Unless it is completely obvious that the cache is gone I will DNF multiple times until found. Usually on the second or third attempt but have gone as high as six attempts.

 

-HHH

[SpencerDub]

I'm quite certain the rule is 7 minutes.

Close.

 

The official rule is that, after seven minutes and thirty-four seconds, the cacher must remove their Official Geocaching Glockenspiel from their cache pack, play a short tune in a minor key, and then plant construction-orange flags around the radius of the area they searched. Once the flags are placed, the cacher then begins chanting, "I will try another time, for this cache I cannot find," and continues chanting it until they reach their vehicle (or home base for the day).

 

However, very few people follow the rules to the letter.

[+Guinness70]

I'm with The Leprechauns,

 

have given up a search after an hour or two

have returned to one spot 5 times, totalling 2 hours

 

depends on the cache. how long it took to get there, muggles, do i really want it.

is the forest fire catching up, how hungry are we,

"I leave the minute when I'm no longer having fun." dixit The Leprechauns

that prettymuch sums it up.

 

I try not to spend an hour. The max i would spend would be one minute .

maxtime requirement for skirtlifting ?

 

yer kidding right?

Edited September 13, 2008 by Guinness70

[+tozainamboku]

How long is too long? I leave the minute when I'm no longer having fun.

 

I'm quite certain the rule is 7 minutes.

 

These are the two answers that came to my mind when I read the OP's question. Since I have done it both ways I can say they are both right.

[+The Unpleasables]

How long is too long? I leave the minute when I'm no longer having fun.

 

That can be five minutes, like if a muggle is giving me the evil eye, or I'm searching through a trash heap and wondering why the cache owner brought me to that spot.

 

That can be an hour or more, like a difficulty five hide on a trail bridge over a babbling brook, or for a cache in an oceanfront breakwater with a beautiful view. My daughter did not want to leave that breakwater, she was having too much fun taking pictures of seagulls. So, I kept looking. I learned later that the cache was missing. Who cares?

 

Team Unpleasable follows this rule, as long as we're having fun we hang around. The minute it gets 'stale' we leave. This could be due to bugs, rain, need for Dairy Queen, or general malaise on our part, but as long as we're interested and having fun, we keep searching.

[+clan_Barron]

We use the NHFA rule. If we are Not Having Fun Anymore we stop. Sometimes that's a couple minutes on a "needle in a haystack" type hide or it's been as much as 1 hour+ on a very cleverly hidden one that we knew we had to be staring right at, that took a couple tries to find.

[mountain_mmike]

This may be a bit off topic, but it is a pet peeve of mine that some cache owners rate their caches a "1" and then leave no hint and/or leave the cache size a "?" so that you have no idea what you're looking for. I think if someone rates a cache under 2, then 99% of the people going for it should be able to find it on the first try. After all, I think the point of Geocaching is actually FINDING a cache. (off soap box now).

[dragondrop]

Time seems to have a strange warping effect at Ground Zero I've found in my experience so far.. I experienced this quite acutely at a cache called Swinsty recently when one 'minute' it's a - "come on kids - we'll find this one in no time" the next, we're all covered in bug bites, it's getting dark and we're hungry. The mind boggles.

[+Guinness70]

-//- After all, I think the point of Geocaching is actually FINDING a cache.

HERE HERE !!!! ABSOLUTELY !!!

its the idea to give pleasure to the seeker/finder

not to beef up the hiders ego

 

ill provide several CLEAR hints + spoiler

hints you grasp BEFORE finding it

[+NYPaddleCacher]

How long is too long? I leave the minute when I'm no longer having fun.

 

That can be five minutes, like if a muggle is giving me the evil eye, or I'm searching through a trash heap and wondering why the cache owner brought me to that spot.

 

That can be an hour or more, like a difficulty five hide on a trail bridge over a babbling brook, or for a cache in an oceanfront breakwater with a beautiful view. My daughter did not want to leave that breakwater, she was having too much fun taking pictures of seagulls. So, I kept looking. I learned later that the cache was missing. Who cares?

 

Team Unpleasable follows this rule, as long as we're having fun we hang around. The minute it gets 'stale' we leave. This could be due to bugs, rain, need for Dairy Queen, or general malaise on our part, but as long as we're interested and having fun, we keep searching.

 

Nobody has mentioned it so far but how I long I spend searching for a cache is largely dependent on my time constraints. I generally have 2-4 hours max on a weekend day to spend geocaching and when I factor in travel time to the closest cache (today it was 20 miles each way) that limits the amount of time I might search for a particular cache. I DNFd on one cache today after cutting the search short because I wanted to hit several other caches on a route that took me in a general direction for home and could be there by 1:45pm and take over child watching duties when my wife went to work. So basically, how far I am from home, or some place where I am obligated to be (it took me about 40 minutes from the last cache I found to get home), how many caches I want to find, and how much time I have available dictates how long I'll search for a cache or how far from my car I'll go to search for a cache.

[+TotemLake]

I am new to caching and have found myself looking for an hour or more for one cache. I am wondering at what point people give up and try again another day. I have gone to the logs for some and said that I did not find and was puzzled and have gotten some extra help kindly provided by cache owners, but I am just wondering if perhaps if it takes more than an hour that maybe the cache is at too high a difficultly level for me and I should stick to easier ones (re: difficulty level)??

Also, I have found that some seem to be located within a ring of poison ivy or so carefully hidden under vegetation that perhaps they would be easier to spot in fall or winter, so plan to return and look for them then. Do other people do this too?

 

Thanks for any hints as I find I am getting better at it but sure feel idiotic sometimes when I read someone found a cache immediately and I looked for an hour with my GPSr saying it was 5 feet away and still couldn't find it..........

 

Frustrated in Maryland

Frances (bigdogsrule)

Keep looking until it stops being fun with one caveat.

 

Be respectful of the area. That is, don't be the bull in the china shop.

 

That being said, most people overthink the hides when trying to find them. Unless it is a specifically evil cache, simplify the process based on the cache description and the hints. Think like a hider of the cache and not the finder. Start low and work your way up. Keep in mind your error rate is going to be in addition to the finder's error rate... the average error is per gps is going to be average the 30 foot radius (yah yah I now about the 3 meter claims - work with me here). Your geo-sense will start to hone itself and you'll be able to narrow your search accordingly as you gain more experience.

 

Above all, when it stops being fun, stop and come back another day.

[Clan Riffster]

I leave the minute when I'm no longer having fun.

Precisely. I have an internal fun meter that oscillates back & forth based upon many variables. Once it hits "Zero", I walk away.

As a reference, I spent a combined total of 17 hours hunting for one particular urban micro before I found it.

Other times I've walked away before I even reach ground zero.

[+chuckwagon101]

Uhhhhhhhh....if I don't see a Big Pile Of Sticks.....from my truck WINDOW????..... I'm OUTTA there!

[+Renegade Knight]

...I am wondering at what point people give up and try again another day....

When I'm not having fun anymore. Time to move on.

[+Ed56]

The time I spend looking depends a lot on the area I'm in. If it's near a busy street and the weeds are full of trash I won't stay more than 5 minutes or so. But if it's a nice area where I'm not worried about being run over or jumped by the local home boys then I'll keep looking until I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. I've gone back to several caches multiple times before finally finding them. My record is about 7 tries plus a hint from the owner and still no joy. I finally chose to cut my losses on that one. GPS will put you in the cache's ballpark... at that point I put it away and start thinking "where would I hide it?" But I also try to keep an open mind and rid myself preconceived ideas about a particular cache.

[+Zop]

I am new to caching and have found myself looking for an hour or more for one cache. I am wondering at what point people give up and try again another day. I have gone to the logs for some and said that I did not find and was puzzled and have gotten some extra help kindly provided by cache owners, but I am just wondering if perhaps if it takes more than an hour that maybe the cache is at too high a difficultly level for me and I should stick to easier ones (re: difficulty level)??

Also, I have found that some seem to be located within a ring of poison ivy or so carefully hidden under vegetation that perhaps they would be easier to spot in fall or winter, so plan to return and look for them then. Do other people do this too?

 

Thanks for any hints as I find I am getting better at it but sure feel idiotic sometimes when I read someone found a cache immediately and I looked for an hour with my GPSr saying it was 5 feet away and still couldn't find it..........

 

Frustrated in Maryland

Frances (bigdogsrule)

 

Are you sure that you are not doing the same thing I did my first week out? Spend all that time looking for a cache only to find out later that it is an unknown (puzzle) cache and actually hidden nearly a mile away? I even scoured a parking lot -TWICE- looking for what later turned out to be an event cache that wasn't for another month!

Ugh..

 

Anyway, now a days, it really depends on the location. I'll spend a few minutes to look the area over and determine from that whether or not I want to invest a lot of effort looking further. A high muggle area or poorly placed hide will certainly trim down my hunt time.

 

It's a very good idea to have some info with you. What is the cache rated? Is it an offset multi where you have to find the GZ and project a waypoint? Is it a puzzle cache where the posted coords are bogus? When I'm going after a traditional hide, rated 3 difficulty or less, I expect to be able to find it within a few minutes now. That certainly was not the case when starting out though. What you are seeking may be a very clever hide but hidden in plain sight and once you find it, you will never forget and spot them from 10 feet away in the future.

 

Keep in mind that if a cache is properly rated, the difficult and terrain ratings may be a huge clue. For example, if you are looking for a 1 difficulty cache that you can't find anywhere near the tree that is closest to GZ, check the ratings again. Maybe the terrain is a 3.5 or higher. If so, start climbing!

[+Zop]

This may be a bit off topic, but it is a pet peeve of mine that some cache owners rate their caches a "1" and then leave no hint and/or leave the cache size a "?" so that you have no idea what you're looking for. I think if someone rates a cache under 2, then 99% of the people going for it should be able to find it on the first try. After all, I think the point of Geocaching is actually FINDING a cache. (off soap box now).

 

AMEN to that! but I now just assume that size ? is either a very clever custom contianer or a nano.

[+SimbaJamey]

I like the, "Until I'm not having fun anymore" idea.

 

I think a lot of it depends on the cache. I've been stumped by some more challenging ones and go WAY beyond the 7 minute rule.

When I first started I spent 6 hours (over the course of 2 weeks) looking for a nano on a sign post right up the street (I usually find nanos a lot more quickly now having seem one before).

A cool local multi took me probably half a dozen attempts and about 10 hours to finally get the smiley, I had to email the last finder (The CO seems to be gone) and get a nudge in the right direction (The coordinates for a stage were completely wrong) literally..."North East corner of the site" I took a friend along and we scoured several acres of woods before finding it on our, "One last look before we go home".

 

One thing I've learned is that when the frustration level gets too high, I walk away and come back another time with fresh eyes.

 

A caveat though is that I've not had to travel very far for my caching adventures yet. I don't know how long I'd spend on individual caches if I was far from home working with a plan and couldn't easily return for another try. The ones I make multiple attempts at or spend lots of time on tend to be ones very close to home or ones I pass on my way to places I drive to often.

I tend to like the ones that stump me more than the ones I walk up to and make the grab and move on. They're the more memorable ones to me.

I've also stayed and hung out where the cache brought me lots of times (usually with older caches) just to enjoy the scenery.

 

I've DNFed 7 caches in my short time playing. 3 I kept working on til I found them, 1 was archived because it's apparently been missing since last year (and the same missing CO)...and the other 3 I'm sure I'll go after again before too long.

 

The last thing I'll say is that the happiest I have ever been to find a cache was the one that took me 6 tries, 10 hours, and an email hint from the previous finder. Like I wrote in the log...I practically skipped home I was so happy to finally get that one off the map!

Hmmmm....if I wasn't allergic to math I'd probably say something like the level of joy that comes with making the find is directly proportional to the amount of frustration getting there.

 

 

 

[Skippermark]

It all depends on what we're doing. A numbers run? 3 to 5 minutes. If we're caching normally, we'll look till we're frustrated which is usually 7 minutes.

[+Wild Thing 73]

Ah heck, have fun searching and enjoy the views, vistas, etc...When arriving at the site location area, just try and put yourself in the hiders mind frame.....It is a game and if at first you don't find it, well, come back another day.....My self, I can be lookin' right at it and can't see it, sometimes it is a "touchy feely" thing. Then some days, it is not in the cards. I have learned to "get over it"....DNFs are great character builders. Happy Trails.....I just love this game....

[+Guinness70]

1minute? 7minutes ?

what are you guys hunting? fish in a barrel?

[+emmett]

.

 

How long do I spend trying?

 

Honestly, I keep trying right up until when I leave.

 

I've learned that if I stop trying I usually won't find it.

 

Though sometimes I find it when I'm not trying.

 

And sometimes I try real hard and find nothing.

 

.

[+fox-and-the-hound]

As long as it takes. Of course that might be longer than we have so it might take several attempts, but usually we'll look until we just feel like we've exhausted every possible idea. Sometimes you're just not thinking clearly so one day it could take 3 hours and another day 3 minutes. So if we have 3 hours, we'll just keep plugging away. If we have 3 minutes we'll devote 3 minutes. As long as we're outside having fun, it's pretty much immaterial time-wise.

[sdarken]

I usually **think** about leaving when the fun runs out.

 

I actually leave after doing the "just one last look" thing 3 or 4 times.

Edited September 18, 2008 by sdarken

[+infiniteMPG]

Usually when I get a DNF it turns out I stopped looking somewhere between 10-15 seconds sooner then I should of

 

Actually, most times when I stop looking it's because after doing the one or two (or seventeen) more times, I get told that we're not having fun anymore, and that's usually followed by a little more begging and then the obligatory "Yes dear"

[+LEGO]

I even scoured a parking lot -TWICE- looking for what later turned out to be an event cache that wasn't for another month!

Ugh..

Wow, that's a good one. I'm not sure that if it was me, I would ever admit to it...

[+Okiebryan]

This guy spent too long looking for a cache.

 

 

But I like the NHFA rule. That's kinda how I do it.

[+emmett]

.

 

In a related subject, something interesting happened with almost all of my first dozen or so DNF's. After along time searching the first time (hour or more at least) and posting the dreaded DNFs, I returned on the second trip to find each cache almost immediately, sometimes in under a minute.

 

I never did figure out how to do that second visit first. Could have saved a lot of time.

 

.

[+Kohavis]

On a boring urban hide location, it runs about 15 to 25 minutes before I've reached the NHFA point. If it's in the woods in a nice, cool, peaceful and secluded spot, I could attempt to let it come to me in a dream by curling up on the leaf litter and taking a nice 2-hour snooze. Then look again when I wake up.

 

If I don't find it, who cares? I just had a nice nap in the woods

 

Seriously, in a nice spot, I could spend 30 minutes or more on it.

[Clan Riffster]

If I don't find it, who cares? I just had a nice nap in the woods

Brother, that line needs to be on a T-shirt!

[+infiniteMPG]

If I don't find it, who cares? I just had a nice nap in the woods Seriously, in a nice spot, I could spend 30 minutes or more on it.

Agree that is a good T-shirt slogan....

 

For us in the woods it's often determined by trying to calculate how long before sunset and how many miles back to the Jeepster, and if we've ever been back to the Jeepster the way we're about to head (a GPSr in hand by no way means you can't get lost), and how long before the swarms of hungry skeeters wake up

[+Kohavis]

If I don't find it, who cares? I just had a nice nap in the woods Seriously, in a nice spot, I could spend 30 minutes or more on it.

Agree that is a good T-shirt slogan....

 

For us in the woods it's often determined by trying to calculate how long before sunset and how many miles back to the Jeepster, and if we've ever been back to the Jeepster the way we're about to head (a GPSr in hand by no way means you can't get lost), and how long before the swarms of hungry skeeters wake up

Problem solved here. I geocache in the morning. Lots of time for a nap. (I don't really nap on cache hunts )

 

And we don't have skeeters here. Not one. Nada. Zilch. Not even in the woods along the river. Quite a change from the Chicago area where I grew up, or northern Minnesota where we spent every summer as kids. Especially in Minnesota - the mosquitoes are so large, when they flap their wings they can knock over saplings

[AZcachemeister]

I'm a firm believer in the NHFA rule...usually that point is reached sometime after 20 minutes or so. I find that caches hidden in locations where I might want to linger are usually not that hard to find...as if the owner already knows I'll probably be hanging around anyway.

I do have a accessory rule guideline to only visit three times before hitting the IGNORE button.

[+ianafraser]

Could be 5 minutes, could be 30. All of a sudden, my mind goes...."this is stupid". Then that's it.

[+wapahani]

Its just how I feel when I start looking.

If its a close cache, then I won't spend a ton of time depending on the feeling.

I call them "scouting trips" to see what I am dealing with.

 

You wouldn't believe how many times you arrive back at the location and find the cache right away. Its funny some times, but its something I learned that works well.

[+WalruZ]

In Silicon Valley we go by the "Joanie" rule, which is 15 minutes per level of difficulty.

 

If you're having trouble finding caches, my advice is to go to a local event and tell some of the old timers you would like to 'tag along' on a cache run. Watching experienced cachers search is very educational.

[+Guinness70]

-//-

Actually, most times when I stop looking it's because after doing the one or two (or seventeen) more times, I get told that we're not having fun anymore, and that's usually followed by a little more begging and then the obligatory "Yes dear"

now that sounds VERY familiar ... but then the dutch version.

 

I'll slightly change my point of view :

last weekend we were caching south west of Aachen, on the Siegfriedline, visiting some bunker caches walking thru the Siegfriedline and the first batch was 5 caches. On nr2 or 3 we had bad signal and a no good hint (tree stump in forest kinda thing), and i hadnt noticed the spoiler during prepping .

so we searched and searched and again, till my wife mentioned that we'ld been searching for 45minutes and still had lots of walking and searching to do on the other caches.

made sense, so LAST sweep...as you do ... NADA

and off we went.

 

new "rule" for us : if we have bad signal and not very usefull hints/spoiler : we stop searching after 20minutes

IF its a needle in a haystack situation

and/or IF there's more walking/caching to do

 

so yeah, ... DEPENDS

[+ventura_kids]

Uhhhhhhhh....if I don't see a Big Pile Of Sticks.....from my truck WINDOW????..... I'm OUTTA there!

 

Exactly....

 

If I see a giant bush, and the cache is a micro........ I'm OUTTA there!

[+Cherokee Bill]

Well, day before yesterday, Spider73 and I, drove about 60-min one way to look for one specific cache, because we saw the rating as 3/4 (GCGRVC). At 61-yo, I believe we need to add another attribute "Insanity".........

 

We found the cache and had a ball. I believe this cache is found only once in about every 2.5-months, which I believe is due to the rating (down the side of a mountain, no trail). Again, we had a BALL

[+Zac Young]

I don't usually spend that long. I generally spend approximately 1 minute on average. But then there are those tuffies that just don't pop out at first. I generally look for about 30-40 minutes and after that if I'm still not victorious, I decide to either come back or mark it unfound.

 

But, you have to remember bigdosrule that when searching with a clue, it can make it a bit more overwhealming. I've biked into a very bushy area once, decode the clue and it was 'At the base of a bush'. Quite frankly, it didn't help a bit considering I never found it. Sometimes you have to go as close as you can and then start looking in a clover form.

 

Don't get discouraged by those tough caches though. IF you can't find it, maybe go find some others and come back to it one day. Sometimes it all depends on what you're thinking or how well your skill has developed. And if you do find it, great job, Congrats!

[+DiamondDaveG]

It varies for us too. If I am limited on time I will try to stick with 1/1 and make a 5 minute check. For others, search time goes up in direct relation to distance from home, chance for a second try, weather, difficulty, who is in the search party, etc.

 

As for your first find being tough, I can completely understand thay one. When I did my first find I didnt have a GPS. I was using VZNavigator on my cell phone and only had 1 number after the decimal. After narrowing the area, I put the phone away and looked for the obvious spots & things that looked out of place. About 5 minutes later I had it in hand. Eventually you will develop a 'geosense' about where the cache is.

Edited September 26, 2008 by DiamondDaveG

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

It varies widely for me, dependent upon the cache in question and its D/T rating, and -- ignoring for a moment the cache hunts that I have aborted as soon as I got onsite because I discovered that the hide was illegal and would have involved trespassing or some other criminal offense (why are so many hides in Kalamazoo MI like this?) -- may range from 1 minute to one or two weekends. If I am tackling an urban micro (and I typically tackle such things only when traveling in distant cities) my maximum hunt time might be a couple of minutes, unless there is a saving grace, but, for a really tough high-Terrain cache, or for some other kind of interesting cache, I might spend anywhere from an hour or two to a weekend or two tackling it. Some few examples follow...

 

When I was in the SW Houston TX area in early 2006, I hunted a number of caches in a forested park in that area; a good number of the caches in the part were Snoogans caches. My normal experience with the Snoogans caches was that if I waited long enuf for my Magellan SportTrak Pro to average/settle, it would take me to within one foot of each of his hides, without fail. Well, in one case, for one of his caches hidden in a forest, I simply could not find it. Despite the fact that I strongly suspected that it was missing in action, I decided to give the hunt about two hours, and during that two hours, I got to know every square millimeter of that forest surface, and its features, within a 45 foot radius of ground zero intimately, and still no cache! I finally gave up and filed a DNF, along with the cautious suggestion that the cache might be missing in action. Sure enuf, Snoogans went to the site the next day and verified that the cache was missing in action, and disabled it till it could be replaced.

 

And, for a 5/5 multi-stage extreme cache (Devil's Hole, GCGY04, by Bluehook) in northern NJ, Sue and I spent about six hours on it on one weekend day, about 3 hours to complete the earlier stages and then three hours onsite at the final stage, where we ultimately could not grab the container because I did not have my climbing gear with me. We then returned to the NNJ site (which required a 4 hour drive each way to and from our home in MD) a few weeks later, this time armed with climbing gear, and I quickly strung the climb and made the excursion to grab the cache and sign the log in less than an hour of onsite time. (Since we had the climbing gear with us, we then went on to tackle the famed Wheretogo?! Vertigo! cache over the Raritan River in central NJ on the same weekend!)

 

And, about two months ago, I was on a consulting trip in Malaysia, and went geocaching with my Malaysian colleague Jeff and his (totally adorable and hot) Chinese girlfriend Kikki, who was visiting briefly from her home city of Senchen, in mainland China. huh? oh... ...sheesh! ....okay, okay, already! Here is the photo of Kikki that everyone has been asking for... sigh...

 

 

Okay, moving on... well, we found our first two caches, including Stonehenge and the Planetarium within fifteen minutes or less apiece (cache coordinates tend to be somewhat imprecise in Malaysia, and the vegetation can be very dense...!),

 

 

but the third cache, Kuala Lumpur Lake Garden, hidden in an equatorial rainforest /meadow setting, well, it kept eluding us, because, it turned out later, the waypoint coordinates (that is, the updated coordinates which were hidden in the cache listing description) were quite a bit off. And so the three of us spent about an hour in 101 F weather crawling through, in and on dense equatorial rainforest and meadow vegetation, with vast hordes of mosquitoes trying to worship our skin (none of us were wearing bug repellent, because none of us believe in using such abominable things), and where 99% of the plants had thorns or nettle-like stinging fuzz, and in a location where there were plenty of poisonous snakes. Ultimately, it was Kikki, a Chinese national who was briefly visiting Malaysia, and who had never hunted a geocache before that day, who first made the find, at a rather long distance from ground zero. So, we spent an hour hunting this cache, and we all got lots of bites as well as funny rashes from all the stinging plants, but we were happy!

 

 

Oh, and as a postscript, I should add that there are at least two teams (ranging in size from five persons to nine persons per team) that each spent about 20 to 22 hours per person, across three weekends, in scoring a team find on our Psycho Urban Cache #13 -- Impossible! Give Up Now!

 

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Edited September 26, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+wimseyguy]

How long is too long? I leave the minute when I'm no longer having fun.

 

I'm quite certain the rule is 7 minutes.

 

These are the two answers that came to my mind when I read the OP's question. Since I have done it both ways I can say they are both right.

I agree with the little green guy, the CA kids, and the 31flavors expert too.

In the past month I have called it quits after an hour in the woods that was a very enjoyable spot and walked away after 30 seconds from a trash, doot, and used jockeys filled area at a rest stop. I'm not sure why I even stayed past 5 seconds. I have gone back 4-5 times to find some caches locally that just had my number before finding them, and usually I had stepped on them or held them on a previous visit. The clock does tend to tick louder when I am further from home for some reason though.