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First day out almot a REAL loser


Greysquirrel34

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I live in Hendersonville NC and to day was my first day searching, not much luck 1 for 4.

Went to Kanuga Kleen and coordinates put me 10 feet in the parking lot, search 30 ft of grassy area with no luck, then came Red White & Yellow, same result, clue says white and yellow must me red, only thing I say was a telephone book, also looked on grassy and gravel areas with not luck, then came Toms Park just could not find, then Just Off The Sidewalk, my N coordinates put me in front of a small tree but the W put me in the middle of the stream searched but area is quite overgrown and they have been working on that area. I must be doing something wrong, GPS is reading 9-10 birds, maybe just me being new.

When I went to Just Off Busy Bend I found it without too much trouble, was real excited, signed log and left, when I was about a quarter mile away I went to make sure my GPS was off and it was not there, mad a quick return a there is was on the ground. I don't mind not finding stuff but if I had lost my new GPS on my first outing I would have really felt like a REAL LOSER.

Had fun though and will go out tomorrow, there a lots to find around here.

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I would say to a newbie.......... stay away from puzzles and micros, at least for a bit.

 

Practice up on regular sized caches first, mostly to get the hang of it. Then try for the little buggers and puzzles.

 

From what I see, it looks like you went after those.

 

Edit note: Do make sure you log the found cache online. You haven't done that yet!

Edited by Gitchee-Gummee
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Hi & welcome to Geocaching :)

 

I hope you're having FUN despite the hardships! First of all, are you keying in the cache coordinates into your GPSr manually? Make sure the coordinate format in the GPSr settings is correct, it should be set for DD MM.MMMM (degrees minutes thousandths of a minute) also verify the map datum is set to WGS84.

 

Next, what difficulty & terrain rating are these caches you are seeking? Be sure to start with "1/1" rated caches at the beginning, perhaps higher but not higher than "2/2", until you get the swing of things.

 

Thirdly, have you checked the logs left by the previous cachers? I always make a habit of checking how long ago the cache was last found. If it's been 6 months or a year or longer,, it might be missing :o Heck even if it was successfully found yesterday it still could be missing today, but that just improves your odds a bit :D Also, reading the previous logs often will give subtle clues about the cache,, I've had more than one near-failure turn successful after studying the previous logs.

 

Have fun & keep at it :)

Edited by NordicMan
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Another thing to be aware of is battery condition. It has been noted with the two others that I cache with that when one of our GPSrs starts reading off by many feet, usually at least 100, that the batteries need replacing even though the battery indicator may show they are still good.

 

This happened again this past week when one GPS was reading 75 feet wild, and I knew exactly where the cache was. Fresh batteries and the seeker was able to make her find.

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I live in Hendersonville NC and to day was my first day searching, not much luck 1 for 4.

Went to Kanuga Kleen and coordinates put me 10 feet in the parking lot, search 30 ft of grassy area with no luck, then came Red White & Yellow, same result, clue says white and yellow must me red, only thing I say was a telephone book, also looked on grassy and gravel areas with not luck, then came Toms Park just could not find, then Just Off The Sidewalk, my N coordinates put me in front of a small tree but the W put me in the middle of the stream searched but area is quite overgrown and they have been working on that area. I must be doing something wrong, GPS is reading 9-10 birds, maybe just me being new.

When I went to Just Off Busy Bend I found it without too much trouble, was real excited, signed log and left, when I was about a quarter mile away I went to make sure my GPS was off and it was not there, mad a quick return a there is was on the ground. I don't mind not finding stuff but if I had lost my new GPS on my first outing I would have really felt like a REAL LOSER.

Had fun though and will go out tomorrow, there a lots to find around here.

 

Remember that these caches have likely survived months, or years, without being "muggled". That means they're hard to find unless you're really looking for them. For urban caches, or caches in the open, they are usually very hard to find until you know what to look for.

 

As others have suggested, focus on the 1-2 difficulties and the larger-than-micro sizes. Go for a good hike in a park with a bunch.

 

Part of the fun is discovering all the ways these things can be hidden, and the many creative caches out there. After a while, you might find a particular type of cache/cache hide not to your liking (I have a couple types), and you can just ignore them. But for the rest, I find it's really enjoyable when I find a new type of cache or a really clever hide!

 

Eventually you'll stumble on some of the trickier urban caches, both in terms of how they are hidden, and the many different types. And you'll go "ohhhhh, NOW I know what to look for!" or "ohhhhh, I had no idea people hid caches THERE!"

 

(I had a first a-ha moment on my first micro/nano cache, I followed the coords and description, and there were only a couple places for it to be hidden; I was holding it in my hand and put it back before I realized it was the cache!)

Edited by AbMagFab
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Hi & welcome to Geocaching :)

 

I hope you're having FUN despite the hardships! First of all, are you keying in the cache coordinates into your GPSr manually? Make sure the coordinate format in the GPSr settings is correct, it should be set for DD MM.MMMM (degrees minutes thousandths of a minute) also verify the map datum is set to WGS84.

 

Next, what difficulty & terrain rating are these caches you are seeking? Be sure to start with "1/1" rated caches at the beginning, perhaps higher but not higher than "2/2", until you get the swing of things.

 

Thirdly, have you checked the logs left by the previous cachers? I always make a habit of checking how long ago the cache was last found. If it's been 6 months or a year or longer,, it might be missing :o Heck even if it was successfully found yesterday it still could be missing today, but that just improves your odds a bit :D Also, reading the previous logs often will give subtle clues about the cache,, I've had more than one near-failure turn successful after studying the previous logs.

 

Have fun & keep at it :)

As I know this area well I am just printing out the page of the cach and using the coordinates from that page, I can look at the map and see I should start to look and just walk it till I get the right coordinates.

I have an old G3 Mac running OS X.3 and have not found any software that will allow me to download information to my GPS, they all seem to require a newer model and later software and as for the map datum I don't know what that is at this time but will look into it.

As for checking out the logs, I have done that and all I missed were found in the last few days and weeks.

I have new batteries and GPS is reading 9-10 birds so I would think it is accurate but as I am new at this I don't know if that is the case.

Thanks for your and others replies and the info you have given me.

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I have new batteries and GPS is reading 9-10 birds so I would think it is accurate but as I am new at this I don't know if that is the case.

You need to understand that NO GPSr has ever found a cache, and that applies to the most accurate ones too. Your GPSr can only lead you to where you need to start searching (called GZ or Ground Zero) and once you arrive at GZ, your GPSr will only distract you from the search.

 

Pete

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I have new batteries and GPS is reading 9-10 birds so I would think it is accurate but as I am new at this I don't know if that is the case.

You need to understand that NO GPSr has ever found a cache, and that applies to the most accurate ones too. Your GPSr can only lead you to where you need to start searching (called GZ or Ground Zero) and once you arrive at GZ, your GPSr will only distract you from the search.

 

Pete

I am aware of that but I was referring to the comments in post #5 where the poster was talking about having fresh batteries.

But thank for the reply, every bit of knowledge passed on by veterans of the hobby is appreciated.

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Hi greysquirrel!! I live in Sav GA but have a friend that lives in hendersonville, so we usually try and find some caches when we visit. There are a lot there, from easy parking lot grabs, to ones at parks that take a longer hike to find!

 

I love it there and envy you for living there! We will be visiting hot springs in a few weeks. I have a travel bug I need to drop off so I'm going to do that.

 

 

 

Just sayin' hi!

Edited by gitarmac
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I have new batteries and GPS is reading 9-10 birds so I would think it is accurate but as I am new at this I don't know if that is the case.

You need to understand that NO GPSr has ever found a cache, and that applies to the most accurate ones too. Your GPSr can only lead you to where you need to start searching (called GZ or Ground Zero) and once you arrive at GZ, your GPSr will only distract you from the search.

 

Pete

I am aware of that but I was referring to the comments in post #5 where the poster was talking about having fresh batteries.

But thank for the reply, every bit of knowledge passed on by veterans of the hobby is appreciated.

The number of birds the GPSr sees is not directly related to battery condition. The ability of the unit to process the bird data is. Just today I had 9 birds with good signal strength but the GPS wasn't updating as I was walking. A set of fresh batteries and all was well.

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Just today I had 9 birds with good signal strength but the GPS wasn't updating as I was walking. A set of fresh batteries and all was well.

My Oregon does that once in awhile. I'm convinced that the software in the device gets stuck in some kind of loop and everything listed below seems to clear the problem equally well:

  • Stopping and re-starting navigation to the cache.
  • Switching to another cache and back again.
  • Calibrating the compass.
  • Cycling the unit off and on.
  • Changing batteries.

Pete

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