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How often do you use the hint?


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I wonder: how often does the typical cacher use the hint? Is it only a last resort for most people? I tend to be kind of a wuss: I end up reading the hint at least 30% of the time. I tend to check it most often in high-muggle situations, especially in residential areas, because I don't enjoy being some weird creepy guy poking around in people's flowerbeds.

 

And you?

 

- blop

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I wonder: how often does the typical cacher use the hint? Is it only a last resort for most people? I tend to be kind of a wuss: I end up reading the hint at least 30% of the time. I tend to check it most often in high-muggle situations, especially in residential areas, because I don't enjoy being some weird creepy guy poking around in people's flowerbeds.

 

And you?

 

- blop

 

I look for the cache for at least 5 minutes before going to the hint. I would guess about 30% or so of the time.

I don't see it as cheating because half the time the hint doesn't even help.

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I'd say that I probably use the hint more often than not. If I have the hint in my GPSr I will usually make the decision once I arrive at the cache area. I dont have much patience for anything resembling a needle-in-a-haystack. I also use the hint in high muggle areas. When the area is more secluded and if I have no particular time-limit, I'm happy to search much longer.

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I wonder: how often does the typical cacher use the hint?

 

On those rare occasions when I think I might be FTF on a hide, I tend to hunt a long time without using the hint.

On those many many many occasions when I do my space cadet move and leave the house with out my PDA I do all my hunting without using the hint - because I don't have it.

 

If I'm properly organized, have coords, have PDA, I might well read the hint as I'm approaching the cache, or not.

No particular rule or time. I don't hesitate to use it the instant hunt frustration arises, or if the area seems to offer entirely too many potential hide location. I now own a DeLorme, so the gps is containing the entire .gpx file! this assuming I load it properly ;-)

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Sometimes I mean to look at the hint, but then, forget, as I'm 1/2 a mile away from my notes...... I found a fantastic cache yesterday that had a nice pully system and the cache way up in the trees, but it took me a while to find it, one because of the camo..... and two, it was way up high..... the clue gave a little hint, but again, it was over 1/2 mile away from me at the time...

 

I know, it was my fault for not bringing the clue with me....

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My general rule is that I will look for about 15 minutes before I look at the hint. I end up looking at the hint on at leat 50% to 60% of caches I attempt. Shows how good I am at this.

 

However, my frustration with hints is that the vast majority of hints do absolutely nothing to help narrow down the search.

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I wonder: how often does the typical cacher use the hint?
We only use the hint when the owner provided one :o

 

Since we paper-less cache using a Palm PDA and often are hiking or biking or yakkin' in the wild, when we decide on a target cache we stop (this is Florida so "stop" means "in any shade we can find") and read the PDA. When we get to GZ we don't want to have to whip out the PDA again unless absolutely necessary so we try to get what we can from the listing (and hint) before we arrive. This means reading the hint ahead of time. If we get stumped, then we whip out the PDA again but that's to read some previous logs.

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I read the hint beforehand when I'm taking my daughters out with me. They enjoy geocaching, but they're not in it for the hunt. They're in it for the loot. So, I do all the prep I can prior to setting out so that we increase the likelihood of a successful hunt. Even with the hints, of course, we routinely come up empty, so the kids are getting plenty of life lessons in handling disappointment to compensate for the way I'm attempting to stack the deck!

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I almost always check the hint on a park n grab micro. Otherwise, as someone else said, when hunt frustration arises.

 

I haven't gone paperless yet, so I will usually decode the hint to be sure there is one, then recode it before printing. If I'm printing out several caches, and take a quick peek to be sure there is a viable hint, I usually don't remember it in the field. However, there are some rude and inconsiderate hiders that will leave a hint that is nothing more than an insult. ("Too easy for a clue...", "Shouldn't need a clue on this.." etc.)

 

It can be really frustrating to decode a hint in the field on a windy, wet or cold day, just to find it tells me I don't need one. If you don't want to leave a hint, don't. You can just leave that part blank. :(

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If we're doing an "epic" cache, we only look at hints when absolutely necessary. If we're doing a numbers run, we'll look up the hint before we're out of the car. On an "average" day, we'll usually check it after a couple minutes.

 

As Flask said (and I'm not sure why), but looking at the hint really helps me remember the cache. Sometimes I can read the description when back home and draw a blank, but as soon as I read the hint, I remember the cache clear as day.

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As Flask said (and I'm not sure why), but looking at the hint really helps me remember the cache.

I know why.... I remember a hint about a cache that was in the middle of a rocky hill near a cliff. The whole hill had holes and the hint said check the big black hole. I can guarantee you that I won't forget that one.
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Some time the title is a better hint than the actual hint...

 

I recently found one called ""Back and Forth""" the hint was "down under"....

 

After looking around for about 20 mins I looked at the title again and said back and fourth and looked around me, saw what looked like a metal porch swing... hmm back and fourth... Looked under it and bingo... Was held in place by a magnet...

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When we first began we made a pact to always check the hint so that we would not go back and forth discussing the matter. Once we hit about 50 finds we decided to select specific caches to do hint-free while doing the rest with hints. Now we do most of them hint-free unless we absolutely need the hint. We give ourselves extra points for hint-free finds. :(

 

Carolyn

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Hi Ya

 

We only use the clue if stumped or if doing an urban cache were there are muggles around and the GPS is jumping. That being said, we did a good few at the weekend were there was no hint and so we had to trust the GPS. Some of the belfast ones are so built up that you couldnt possibly get it without the hint IMO simply because there are so many places to look, so many muggles and the GPSr is all over the place.

 

Claire xx

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But, isn't frustrating when you do check the hint and it says, "No hint needed..."

or its a 9999999999999 rocks area and hint is "under a rock"

 

Or theres a clue that was there at the time they hid it but its no there anymore. We did one recently that was planted in 2006 and the clue said something about blue ivy. It wasnt blue anymore thats for sure, but there were sprinkles (hardly seeable) on some stones so we searched that area. The hint was needed at that location because of extremely bad GPSr. Eventually intuition got me there, I saw a rock with moss on the east side and next to the side where the light hits it. So I knew something was amiss, moved about 20 rocks and there it was.

 

Claire xx

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