Most useless hint?

[+careygang]

Time for some levity...

We've all seen the 'In Ivy' or the 'Base of tree', but has anyone got any other pointless or useless hints, be they too long, too cryptic or whatever.

I realise this might become a bit personal, so I'd like to set a rule that the cache, the locality or the owner must not be identified.

Just give the 'Hint' and explain why it didn't help. Then if the owner sees it here it is up to them to change it, have a laugh, realise that it was not as helpful as they intended etc.

 

This topic was thought of today after we had a DNF on a cache which was in the middle of nowhere, in brush/shrub land across a dual carriageway (for our US readers that is a divided highway ) from an abandoned truck stop, which was about 1000 feet away.

The additional hint was...Used to serve good lunches across the street.

 

Classic. The GPS had got me nearer than that!!

Edited January 20, 2009 by careygang

[+JeremyR]

I can't remember the GC or precise hint anyway but the ones I always find most useless are the ones that take half an hour to read in the field. Nothing like decoding three sentences of thesaurus-quality ROT13 only to find that it describes the route from the parking to the coords and ends with something like: "now look down, you can't miss it"

[Chudley Cannons]

"to the right of path"... OK, dumba*s, which way down the path am I walking????

[+Just Roger]

"to the right of path"... OK, dumba*s, which way down the path am I walking????

 

Also, "Just after the bridge."

 

I also like the "Base of an Ash tree" which when, eventually, found is actually an Oak

[+HazelS]

Under a rock.... when I'm stood at a sea wall defence where there's nothing but huge rocks to look under!!

[+Matrix]

This one Useless hint

 

 

Oh yeah and it is one of mine

[+Munkeh]

This one Useless hint

 

 

Oh yeah and it is one of mine

 

no hint required

[+Cushie Butterfield]

For a magnetic nano:

"RHS of the bench as you sit on it"

Except there are several benches near each other, GPS shows between three of them and none have backs.

[+Bambography]

"Look hard, Its there"

 

It wasn't, it'd been muggled!!!

[+Kryten]

"It's obvious"

[+Matrix]

This one Useless hint

 

 

Oh yeah and it is one of mine

 

no hint required

 

Exactly

[+Stokesy]

My least favourite is "ivy covered tree", which seems to crop up alot, these are normally accompanied at GZ by lots of ivy covered trees that have been destroyed by cachers.

 

Me? I just have a quick visual look and walk away......

[+Delta68]

This was a hint for a cache hidden in a hedge:

 

"A small brown round container."

 

 

 

Mark

[+ClareLouise]

"Standing with your back the the cemetery, on the right of the path"

 

Spent 45 minutes looking, then hopped over to the left hand side of the path, and found cache in 5 minutes! Hint has since been amended!

[+purple_pineapple]

Same as Hazel said above - "Under some rocks" only this time we were stood on a Tor in Dartmoor...

[+The Blorenges]

A friend asked me to translate this one once:

 

ABA RAR RQRQ

 

 

MrsB

[+tedwin]

"Think Christmas Tree" in a small wood of fir trees.

[+Bear and Ragged]

See spoiler pic.

 

I don't look at hints unless I struggle to find, or the cache is in a high muggle area and needs a "quick in and out" with the cache...

 

In the middle of no-where, decrypting "see spoiler pic" gets some very naughty words!

[+Bob Smith]

How about this one?

 

EBUBYRBGF

 

Which decrypts to

 

ROHOLEOTS

[+vw_k]

"In a fir tree"

 

The cache was eventually found in a Yew, arboricultural ignorance!

[dodgydaved]

How about this one?

 

EBUBYRBGF

 

Which decrypts to

 

ROHOLEOTS

 

Sooooo.......look for a hole in the roots

[+drdick&vick]

Same as Hazel said above - "Under some rocks" only this time we were stood on a Tor in Dartmoor...

 

Yeah, been to one or two like that. Rocks,rocks, rocks and even more rocks.

Edited January 20, 2009 by DrDick&Vick

[+DTJM]

"None needed"

 

Really? wonder why we're trying to use it then!

 

Denise

[+sssss]

anything cryptic,

[+jerryo]

"Underneath a gorse bush in a depression."

In case the scale isn't apparent, there are about 2 acres of gorse bushes here.

[+Birdman-of-liskatraz]

I'm good at bad hints...

 

My all time fav - (and it took 3 attempts to get it past a reviewer) was "Near a sheep when placed" It got loads of comments (And hopefully a laugh or two as well!)

 

Another which was about 10 feet above the ground - tucked in a hole in the side of a Tor was "remember this was placed by The Birdman" which I thought was a great clue to the fact it was up high - but loads of people wrote comments like - "We know who placed it, no need to tell us again"

 

and whilst note a clue - my special favourite "Spoiler photo" was:

 

With a comment of - "It's somewhere here"

 

and for those who appreciate bad hints - you may like to suggest the next part of "The UK's Second Mega Event" clue... wonder if anyone's noticed...?

[+mongoose39uk]

Birdman organises an event................ Got the storm booked?

[+The Blorenges]

I'm good at bad hints...

 

and for those who appreciate bad hints - you may like to suggest the next part of "The UK's Second Mega Event" clue... wonder if anyone's noticed...?

 

I just had a look. How about "... near a donkey."

 

MrsB

[+UKCacheMag]

I recently set a series, and as they were new decided hints would wait....

 

So I put the hint as stop cheating!

 

Sure that will annoy some people, oh well

[+Budlaw]

"After FTF"

 

'x' number of finds later it's still there!

[+The Mad MG's]

Phew... None of mine yet:)

[+SidAndBob]

"If climbing up from <placename>, you open a gate marked "Cattle In [Field] - Please Close Gate" then you have gone too far."

The gate was about 100yds from the cache.

 

Another really bad one was "75 yards from Stop Look Listen".

Terrible hint in the first place, but it's actually 175 yards.

[+gazooks]

'under large stone' like other have said in a scree debris field with the GPS bouncing all over the place

 

and similarly 'in crevice between rocks' - in a volcano debris field.

 

But 'roots of tree' in the middle of a wood is the one I always hate.

 

In my early days of caching before I went paperless I used to hate war & peace style clues that took an age to decode in the middle of a field.

[+Alibags]

I like to put a 'hint' and not a 'spoiler' on my cache pages, but if the cache is in a high muggle area, I will make the hint much more of a spoiler, as the cache is going to be hard enough without a rubbish hint

 

BUT...

 

I like witty, clever or cryptic hints when I do caches : ones that help but where you have to use your brain. I don't think the hint should just tell you where the cache is, and in these days of paperless caching, many people seem to set off looking for caches with the hints pre-decrypted in advance.

 

Worst one... I had one of these the other week and was less than amused when looking for a micro in the woods... another vote for "BASE OF TREE"

[+Pharisee]

Worst one... I had one of these the other week and was less than amused when looking for a micro in the woods... another vote for "BASE OF TREE"

 

Had had one of those some time ago... in the middle of Sherwood Forest!

[+Team CeDo]

You know, When I decided to look at this topic I wasn't sure what to expect. Now that I have been reading these so called hints I am sitting here laughing my butt off! Not only because they are totaly useless hints most of the time but because they are ones we see here very often!! LOL

 

Here in Florida we get the amazing and SO VERY COMMON hint "hidden Florida style" Which usually means in the palmettos.Well here in Florida the woods usually consists of MOSTLY palmettos. Pretend there is a cache hidden here........Do you see it?......I'll give you a hint, it's hidden "Florida Style"

 

[+walkergeoff and wife]

When caching in the US towards the end of 2007 I went for a cache in a park. The co-ords took you to the middle of the park, and the idea was to use your caching instincts to find it.

 

All the information given on the page was:

 

The cache is by a big tree.

 

The cache only contains a geonote and log. So bring your own pen.

 

There were loads of big trees within range, and lots of people going by. As a Brit in a security-conscious country I felt very exposed.

 

The clue:

 

Beware of muggles, bring a picnic lunch

 

I logged a DNF!

Edited January 21, 2009 by walkergeoff

[ron9516]

"Bring a pen or pencil"

 

Wow no s**t sherlock, what will I need one of those for

[+JeremyR]

"Bring a pen or pencil"

 

Wow no s**t sherlock, what will I need one of those for

There's a sizeable series of caches that I could mention (not in the UK I might point out) where "BYOP" is the only info given aside from the coords and container size (micro, naturally). No descriptions, no hints.

[+stonefielders]

local cacher known for not giving hints was cajoled into giving one after a few critical posts

Cache in an area with a lot of tree cover & dodgy GPS reception

 

HINT - TREE

 

Wow, that REALLY helps!

Let me get my coat on & rush over to not find it again

[+stonefielders]

Whilst I'm on a roll

The worst hints are those that ramble on & on

 

"Get out of your car, put your boots on, go through the gate, follow blah blah"

 

All I see in my GPS is

 

Get out of your car, put y

[+The Blorenges]

I was just thinking that short, 'not very specific' hints and also longer rambling ones are both disliked to some extent. I suppose one way of looking at this is that if you've hidden the cache (e.g.) under a rock on top of a rocky bit of moorland where there are 50+ assorted rocks to be examined then to give a really clear hint you'd have to ramble a bit...

 

"West side of track, under the medium sized triangular rock with a small gorse bush at its side."

 

MrsB

[+MooToo]

This has caused much amusement to read .....

we had a local cache that on decryption read "watch out for muggles!" very useful as to the gz of the hide!

[+Renegade Knight]

"After you log your DNF call me for a clue".

[Chudley Cannons]

Had three yesterday. Same hider.

 

"Ittybitty" - as if micros are anything else.

"Silver" - when I eventually found it, I could see it was silver.

"For a 1.5 - no clue" - gee thanks. Micro in a hedge. Not too hard in winter, I'm glad it wasn't July.

[+saddler21]

One I've seen this evening in the West Midlands states "alondside a canal".

 

I wish I'd not looked. That just made it too easy and spoiled the fun.

Edited January 23, 2009 by saddler21

[+Bill D (wwh)]

"In a fir tree"

 

The cache was eventually found in a Yew, arboricultural ignorance!

I've encountered that same ignorance too. Maz62 and I were looking for a cache deep in thick mixed woodland in high summer. Obviously it didn't take us long to realize we needed the hint, which was "In a chestnut tree".

 

A little over an hour later Maz found the cache in a horse chestnut...

[+stonefielders]

I was just thinking that short, 'not very specific' hints and also longer rambling ones are both disliked to some extent. I suppose one way of looking at this is that if you've hidden the cache (e.g.) under a rock on top of a rocky bit of moorland where there are 50+ assorted rocks to be examined then to give a really clear hint you'd have to ramble a bit...

 

"West side of track, under the medium sized triangular rock with a small gorse bush at its side."

 

MrsB

 

NP if they put the crux element of the hint at the start

 

...triangular rock, Gorse at side

 

would do for my GPS

[+Wintonian]

DNF'ed this one today.

 

'12 from the left'

 

The GPS took me to where the paths were at a cross-roads.

 

Think I worked out to what it was refering to and did look but will have to return when more daylight is avalible.

 

I wish pepole would put; 'on your leftt as you come out the wood' or 'in the 4th big tree on the right as you approach from the road' or would that be to easy?

[+ghettomedic]

"look at the stone wall"

 

Well thanks there are 4 stone walls there, in different directions.