Man that is a great idea....

[+kraushad]

Okay I am still relatively new to this activity having only 195 finds.

 

My background as a teacher brought this to mind. As a teacher you have your own routine or style, but when you get the chance to observe other teachers, many times you can pick up on little tricks from more veteran teachers that help you immeasurably to have more fun while being more effective.

 

I feel as though I have a routine for hunting caches now, that is fairly constant. I wonder how differently my routine is from someone else for hunting these things. I am not talking about how to load the waypoints into the GPS or anything like that, but I can't stop thinking that there elements of someone else's routine that would make the hunt even better, more efficient, etc.

 

If you ever had an "AHA!" moment gleaning some strategy or practice from another cacher, some trick of the trade, tool, or procedure that made the sport more enjoyable/productive, would you mind sharing it here? It doesn't have to be just about the hunt... it could be a cool gadget, or way of organizing materials, etc...

 

Remember the old addage - "If you steal an idea from me, you have stolen it twice!"

Edited December 4, 2008 by kraushad

[+ArcherDragoon]

Sometimes...dumb luck is the best luck...

[+Wild Thing 73]

I have logged all the caches in my Local Area, so I must make "cache runs", so if you view my "Profile Page" (near the end)....You will get an Idea of what I do in preparation for the "run"...Happy caching and stay safe.

[+WatchDog2020]

100 - 50 feet from ground zero on established woodland caches – STOP and look for Geo Trails to the cache.

[+StarBrand]

The most blissful moment I ever had as a cacher was when it struck me that I could/should walk away just as soon as that particular cache isn't fun any more. Seems rather obvious doesn't it?? Yet few seem to be able/willing to look at it that way. Caching is now much more fun overall - so my advice is: be prepared to walk away without a find.....and that is ok.

[+hukilaulau]

The most blissful moment I ever had as a cacher was when it struck me that I could/should walk away just as soon as that particular cache isn't fun any more. Seems rather obvious doesn't it?? Yet few seem to be able/willing to look at it that way. Caching is now much more fun overall - so my advice is: be prepared to walk away without a find.....and that is ok.

I agree completely with this, and yet I still sometimes have difficulty doing it!

I would add this, though... before you walk away, just stop, sit down if you can, do nothing but look around you slowly, not even really looking for the cache. I've found some of the most creative hides that way.

(I don't do this with urban caches, I just walk away quckly!)

If you come to a fence in the woods, there's usually a hole in it within a couple of hundred feet or so.

A pond usually has some sort of trail all the way around it, even if it heads away for a bit.

[+Renegade Knight]

The wisest thing I do is let Night Stalker lead the way. When he starts bushwacking, I just take the trail a tad further and meet him at the cache.

 

Not exactly an 'ah hah' moment, but it sure makes me smile every time. Plus it works. To be fair that doesn't at all mean that I'll be the one to find the cache. that's different.

[sdarken]

Yep. What Renegade Knight said. Stay on the trail until it's certain that you've gone too far. Bushwhacking should be a last resort. Another forum poster once said that you should assume that the hider probably found an easy way to get to the location when the cache was placed. (ie: the owner is as lazy as you are). Most of the time that's probably true.

 

Asking yourself : "Where would I hide a cache around here?" is another good idea. Sometimes you can read descriptions and clues and make too many assumptions in advance so taking a step backwards and re-assessing the situation might give you a different perspective.

 

From time to time there will be always be the occasional cache that makes you feel like a beginner again. I think most people have that experience now and then. Maybe that's one of the things that keeps the game interesting.

[+markandsandy]

The wisest thing I do is let Night Stalker lead the way. When he starts bushwacking, I just take the trail a tad further and meet him at the cache.

 

Yep. What Renegade Knight said. Stay on the trail until it's certain that you've gone too far. Bushwhacking should be a last resort.

 

And even after seeing this numerous times, I still sometimes take the hard way in.

 

Not exactly an 'ah hah' moment...

 

The 'ah hah' moment comes when you've reached the cache and see the easy route, and go 'ah hah', that's the way I should have come!

[+Harry Dolphin]

After a while, you develop a geosense. Something slightly out of place. Where would I hide the cache? Here, in New Jersey, scratched rocks can be a give-away. And, the hardest caches are the ones that defy geosense! Ach. I remember one in particular. Hadn't been found in seven months. Lots of great hiding places! Rocks. Logs. &c. It was on the ground, unde a layer of leaves. If I hadn't hit it with my hiking stick, we'd never have found it! Fortunately, those are rare.

[+The Leprechauns]

My "wow" moment came in September 2003, during a business/caching trip to Washington State. Since starting in June 2002, I had cached with printouts, targeting specific caches to find during each trip. Six or eight caches was a big day. When I finished my planned route, I went home.

 

After my business meetings, I spent a weekend caching with a stellar group that included Team Misguided and Moun10Bike. I saw my first maps on a GPS that allowed autorouting. They had Palm Pilots with hundreds of caches in the area we were visiting. There was a laptop in the car with a HUGE map showing all the caches. I'd never seen anything like it. They were so organized, yet so free. We wandered off our planned route and hopped from one ferryboat ride to another to find some caches I remember well to this day. Me? All I had was my pile of printouts for 30 caches near my hotel.

 

I came home from that trip and plunged into paperless caching. Now, I share my knowledge and setup with others, and I roam freely over several states, knowing that every geocache I might want to hunt is sitting on the laptop computer next to me.

 

THANKS, Team Misguided and Moun10Bike!

[+TrailGators]

When you get close to the cache, put your ONE GPS in your pocket and use your TWO eyeballs!

[+Marcas_Found]

The development of "geo-senses" is an interesting and fun thing to watch! South Jersey has a very active caching community and we are always meeting up in groups to cache. There are members with 4500+ caches to 20 caches under their belt. It's interesting to watch the hunt at GZ with a group like this.

 

A week ago, we went out with a brand new cacher and watched her have serious issues looking for a cache after everyone else had found it. We laughed a lot as a group; not to be mean but almost in a nostalgic way of remembering when we did the same thing!

 

After a while you also get a "feal" for how certain cachers hide things. For example, one of our prolific cache hiders has a bunch of micros in the woods BUT their never on the ground. Knowing who hid the cache gives you an edge on trying to find it.

 

The again there's always dump luck!

 

I'm also the person who will resort back to following the "idiot box" after 10 minutes of no luck, whereas my wife will sit down and just take everything in around her. Then she usually spots the cache and lets me agonize over it for another 10 minutes

[the3gmen]

When you get close to the cache, put your ONE GPS in your pocket and use your TWO eyeballs!

 

I would modify this to "set the GPS down where IT says the cache should be and then use your eyes and geosense to search".

 

Of course I on;y set my gpsr down when it feels safe to do so,

[+Gigi and Pop]

"If I were a cache, where would I hide?" that gets me there quicker than others.

[Tonka_Boy]

I'll second what watchdog2020 said. When your GPSr reads 100 feet to the cache, STOP! In reality, you are closer than 100 feet. You should wait until the distance reading stabilizes before continuing. Usually it will count down to 50 or 60 feet, and the pointer will be pointing right at the cache. Learning this was our ah-ha moment.

 

On very difficult hides, after you've looked for 20 minutes without finding the cache, repeat the above sequence. But rather than walking to where you think the cache may be, sit down, relax, and observe. There is a clue somewhere. What is it? This is how you develop your Spidey sence.

 

On a recent geo-hunt, we were ready to give up our search. So I sat down - looking, observing. Then I noticed a roughed up spot on a low tree limb. A shoe print! The cache was in a hole, high up in the tree. We would have never found it.