What about winter time?

[+kuzmafamily]

Very new at this, a friend gave me a GPS and told me all about this sport. Started off with my daughter but the addiction grew and now I try to get in as many as I can. What happens when the snow starts to fall, do you continue to search for the caches? I can see the difficulty getting a lot worse. I have been lucky so far but some of the caches I have tried for will need a little more time invested or maybe I will start to make more sense of the clues.

Thanks

[+jbar]

I always mark my caches as snow friendly or not, so at least you know you can try to find them.

[+BlueDeuce]

Heck yeah! As far as I'm concerned high summer is the worst time to go caching. Hot, buggy, heavy tree coverage, high weeds.

[+briansnat]

My favorite time of the year to cache. Some caches are very difficult to find under the snow, but you'd be surprised how often you can luck out. I once found one under 3 feet of snow. It was part luck, part educated guess.

 

And some caches, particluarly in snow countery are hidden with winter in mind.

 

Sometimes its actually eaiser because you can follow footprints right to the cache.

[+StarBrand]

I've cached when it was -20F and wind blowing the snow around. Cold but I found several that day and had fun.

 

I've also cached in 118 degree desert heat in the summer. I'll take winter over that any day!!

[knowschad]

Minnesota here. I cache all winter. No mosquitos, ticks, or poison ivy. I was pretty misearable though until I invested in the right clothing. Wool (not cotton!) socks, waterproof boots, good long underwear, etc. One thing about geocaching vs many other winter activities is that you are frequently going from a cold, snowy environment to a warm car that quickly melts that snow. You need to stay dry if you are to stay warm.

 

 

[Edited to add: Last January, I found 148 caches. Last February, I found 166. Compare with last August when I found 158.]

Edited September 29, 2009 by knowschad

[avroair]

depends on the cache ~ if its a hike and under 2 feet of snow, probably not. if it's in town then sure...

[Tahosa and Sons]

No problem here in AZ. and just a wee bit more difficult in CO.

[GOF and Bacall]

No Ticks!

[+flask]

we learned to cache during a bitter cold january with lots of snow.

 

my caching tends to slow down in the winter not because it's too cold, but because it's ski season and i try to ski five or six days a week.

 

usually your hike time to a cache will be longer, and your search will often take longer (except where it's shortened by the presence of footprints), but if you measure the success of your caching day by how many hours you spend in happy pursuit, you'll like it just fine.

 

if the success of your day is determined by how quickly you can rack up smilies you will not enjoy snow caching very much.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Very new at this, a friend gave me a GPS and told me all about this sport. Started off with my daughter but the addiction grew and now I try to get in as many as I can. What happens when the snow starts to fall, do you continue to search for the caches? I can see the difficulty getting a lot worse.

Thanks

 

It can also get a lot easier.

 

There are fewer leaves on the trees which can improve satellite reception significantly.

 

No bugs, poison ivy/oak.

 

General ground cover foliage is reduced (thorns) often making it less painful to retrieve the cache.

 

If someone has found the cache after a recent storm there will often be a well defined geotrail right to the cache (follow the footsteps leading away from the cache).

 

Fewer muggles. When it's really cold you might not encounter as many muggles.

 

If you dress for the temperature, and filter out for caches that are "winter friendly" it can be a very good way to find caches.

[+ngrrfan]

Ya'll are talkin' 'bout trompin' through snow.... the way the winters have been, most likely it will be just cold.

 

Out here the snow doesn't last all that long so all I will worry about may be cold. And that is also why I save all the "in town" caches for late fall/winter/spring. There's less chance of things going awry.

[+flask]

 

No bugs, poison ivy/oak.

 

 

mostly correct, but it's worth a warning:

 

poison ivy does not lose its toxicity in the winter. the stems also carry the urushiol oil, so although there's less surface area to transmit oil, the plants are still present, and leafless they are harder to identify.

 

those who are very sensitive will have a WORSE time of it.

[+Geopony]

[quote

[+okie-wan]

Sounds like a good time to double up on pastimes. When I lived back east I liked hiking, backpacking, and snow shoeing. Seems like a body could snow shoe to a cache. (snowshoe, snow shoe ? hmmmm.....? Cross country ski maybe? Where I live now, what little snow we get is gone by noon.

[+ChannelFadge]

[quote

[JDiablo]

[quote

Looks like the snow is already falling

[+skeezicks]

I also like to cache year round.I've had some of my most memorable caching experiences in the snow.Be sure and look the cache description over good before you try and find them in the snow though...trying to find a micro buried somewhere in a snow bank creates the obvious challenges.They can also become frozen to/or into the ground at times...just have fun with it no matter when you go searching for one!!

[+SkellyCA]

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, winter caching to me means I have to wear long pants and a sweater. So I'm probably no help.

 

Edited September 30, 2009 by SkellyCA

[+ScottKaren]

[quote

Looks like the snow is already falling

 

 

We plan on caching in the winter, but then living in SoCal you can't really call what we have Winter

[+atmospherium]

Ya'll are talkin' 'bout trompin' through snow.... the way the winters have been, most likely it will be just cold.

 

That will be just fine with me. I shoveled a heck of a lot of "just cold" last winter.

[Hennessey's]

I'm new to geocaching as well (since June) and have thought about winter-time lately and how I am going to feed my addiction to cache. I've been trying to get all the caches that are near water or big long mountain hikes during the summer time and have been saving the neighborhood parks and caches around my house for wintertime. We got over 90 inches of snow last winter and have regularly 90-100 degree July's and August's, so I am discovering how much caching changes with seasons as I'm loving the 70's crisp autumn days lately.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I'm new to geocaching as well (since June) and have thought about winter-time lately and how I am going to feed my addiction to cache. I've been trying to get all the caches that are near water or big long mountain hikes during the summer time and have been saving the neighborhood parks and caches around my house for wintertime.

 

That's a good strategy. I find that I do a lot more "urban" caching (for what passes for urban around here) during the winter. It's not just the long hikes that can be made much more difficult in the snow but a lot of caches around here are off seasonal roads (unmaintained in winter). Although I have a All wheel drive vehicle with decent ground clearance that chances of getting stuck or sliding off one of the steep icy roads is just too high.

[+Kryten]

An Alaskan cacher told me they used ammo cans and metal detectors.

[+apereira]

I like the non poison ivy part of it . Everytime I go geocaching in the woods here in Texas I get poison ivy. Not matter how carefull I am and protected I usually get something.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

We do not get the most snow, but with a winter average of 287", finding a geocache can be a little difficult, unless of course, you "follow the trail" left by others. That isn't too likely as most today don't like wading through thigh deep snow for even 10 yards, not to mention a mile or so. Simply finding one when most bushes are buried can be a chore!

 

A few COs have thought of this and hung caches (medium size) in pine, spruce and fir trees. It can still be a chore just to get to the tree!

 

I guess we will just take a winter break, or perhaps travel to where we can cache.

[+briansnat]

 

No bugs, poison ivy/oak.

 

 

mostly correct, but it's worth a warning:

 

poison ivy does not lose its toxicity in the winter. the stems also carry the urushiol oil, so although there's less surface area to transmit oil, the plants are still present, and leafless they are harder to identify.

 

those who are very sensitive will have a WORSE time of it.

 

Ticks are also out and about in the winter if it gets above freezing. I've encountered them

on warmer January days, even with a foot of snow on the ground.

[namiboy]

what is this winter thing you speak of? snow??? what?

[+flask]

what is this winter thing you speak of? snow??? what?

 

it is that delightful time of year that makes life worth living.

 

i could never live in the deep south, and by "deep south", please understand that i mean massachusetts.

 

anything south of that might as well be ecuador if you ask me.

 

ewwwwww.

 

i prefer the more moderate climate of, say, montreal.

[+briansnat]

what is this winter thing you speak of? snow??? what?

 

it is that delightful time of year that makes life worth living.

 

i could never live in the deep south, and by "deep south", please understand that i mean massachusetts.

 

anything south of that might as well be ecuador if you ask me.

 

ewwwwww.

 

i prefer the more moderate climate of, say, montreal.

 

I agree, although I will argue that we do have real winter here in NJ (well in most years). Snow is likely in most years and in some years we get a decent snow pack, and below 0 degree temps are not all that unheard of. Sure I realize that that is a warm day in Vt. My brother lives there and says sometimes he feels like he is living in Ice Station Zebra, but some of my favorite skiing days were in Vermont it was 20 degrees below zero at the summit not including the wind chill factor. It makes you feel so alive.

 

I couldn't live in an area where there was no real winter. You can have Florida, southern CA and southern Texas. I have no interest in wearing shorts and sandals in January. Give me my 20 below LL Bean boots, a down jacket and some sun and it is it absolute heaven. See

. See

and this. That is life! Edited October 1, 2009 by briansnat

[namiboy]

what is this winter thing you speak of? snow??? what?

 

it is that delightful time of year that makes life worth living.

 

i could never live in the deep south, and by "deep south", please understand that i mean massachusetts.

 

anything south of that might as well be ecuador if you ask me.

 

ewwwwww.

 

i prefer the more moderate climate of, say, montreal.

 

yeah, i have kinda the opposite 'problem' of winter caching here. that being, do i really want to go traipsing thru a scrub area in august when it's 95 degrees with, as the weather channel says a 'feels like 105' out there?

[+Rustynails]

what is this winter thing you speak of? snow??? what?

 

it is that delightful time of year that makes life worth living.

 

i could never live in the deep south, and by "deep south", please understand that i mean massachusetts.

 

anything south of that might as well be ecuador if you ask me.

 

ewwwwww.

 

i prefer the more moderate climate of, say, montreal.

 

I agree, although I will argue that we do have real winter here in NJ (well in most years). Snow is likely in most years and in some years we get a decent snow pack, and below 0 degree temps are not all that unheard of. Sure I realize that that is a warm day in Vt. My brother lives there and says sometimes he feels like he is living in Ice Station Zebra, but some of my favorite skiing days were in Vermont it was 20 degrees below zero at the summit not including the wind chill factor. It makes you feel so alive.

 

I couldn't live in an area where there was no real winter. You can have Florida, southern CA and southern Texas. I have no interest in wearing shorts and sandals in January. Give me my 20 below LL Bean boots, a down jacket and some sun and it is it absolute heaven. See

. See

and this. That is life!

 

Yah want some real winter, visit Minnesota in January and do some caching. Uff da if your lucky it might be a warm 5-10 above.

Edited October 1, 2009 by rustynails.

[+flask]

hey, we have whole months in which the temperature does not go above zero. granted, we have fewer of them than you do in minnesota, but we do know winter.

 

as for new jersey, it's not that there's not real winter there, but summers!...

 

i have no desire to go around in shorts and sandals in summer. give me a nice temperate july in which long pants and turtlenecks are appropriate and i'm a happy person.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

I like the when the weather (temps) are just stiff enough that your nose hairs crack taking that first breath outdoors!

[+Ladybug Kids]

We can just about smell the snow in Anchorage, it's fallen so close. Time to exchange bug dope and mountain bikes for snow shoes, skis, snowmobiles, and dog sleds.

 

Here are a few examples of why winter doesn't stop caching in Alaska:

 

Independent Point of View

 

Cygnet Lake Spring

 

Campbell Gorge Rim Trail #2

 

Lee's Cabin Fever Reliever

 

Middle Fork Crossroads

 

With thoughtful placement, no metal detectors are required.

 

It's true that our find rate decreases in the winter, but that's because we're having so much fun playing in the backcountry snow!

Edited October 1, 2009 by Ladybug Kids

[Raver Dave]

Caching in the snow is great fun and makes most areas much more scenic, driving to caches in the snow however is not always so fun.

 

This last winter I was out caching in North Wales and tom tom guided me up a lane over a hill, came up on a nice steep uphil section that was under shade, hit a nice ole patch of ice and was unable to progress, had to reverse a few hundred meters down a lovely windy lane that was not much wider than my car []

 

Another occasion I went for a cache not long after it had snowed, after finding the cache I foolishly decided to carry on the way I was pointing down a country lane instead of backing out onto the main road, after a few 100yrds I lost traction on the snow and almost ended up stranded.