Your worst DNF day

[+atmospherium]

Today I managed to log 5 DNFs in a row. Two of them were listed as easy park and grabs. As I trudged wearily away from the 5th one, I felt utterly defeated. A black cloud of ultimate despair hovered over me all afternoon.

 

Thankfully, I did go on to find 6 caches after the streak of DNFs, and my spirits revived to the point where I was enjoying the game again. But by golly, for a while there I felt like I was the worst geocacher that ever stumbled blindly through the wet woods.

 

What are your worst days, when you couldn't seem to find anything?

[+climbingcrew]

Today was pretty bad. It was a lovely fall day and I thought we would have a great time. But it was me and two little ones and a small dog - on a leash. We met three unleashed labs in under 10 minutes which went directlfy for my kids and pup (must be leashed park) and then as we were searching for the first cache another unleashed dog came tearing up at us. I tried to get between him and my youngest and the pup and it barred it's teeth. Owner was coming up behind telling me he won't hurt anyone - that's why he barred his teeth at me and doesn't respond to his owner!!! So we left that cache and continued to try and find another in the park. It had rained last night and the whole area was now in a swamp. Youngest got completely soaked and I wasn't far behind him. We did manage one cache today but my gps was so off in this park that it had us crawling over all sorts of rocks and things that were much rougher than the ratings listed it as. Not the hiders fault, but it was a long, wet day!

[GOF and Bacall]

My worst day caching was still better than doing chores.

[+flask]

i think our worst DNF was the one where we drove up into the far northern tip of NH to look for a cache in because of terrain issues got separated and there was this thing with the border guards and not only did we never find that cache, but no one ever found that cache.

 

most days when we have a failure we get to find a few things to comfort ourselves with, but i think on this one day the DNF was all there was.

[+dakboy]

I found 6 & DNF'd 6 in a span of about 3 hours yesterday. It was pretty disappointing.

 

But then there are days where the caches just jump right out at me all afternoon.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I will never forget my worst DNF day! I had just started caching and didn't know much about the game beyond how to load cache listings into my Garmin eTrex Yellow. I had found 20 or 30 caches and was feeling pretty good at this game.

 

I would load a bunch of cache listings into the GPS then just go from one to the next nearest. I came upon a cache called "The Center Of Things" about 40 miles from home and commenced looking. I looked. And I looked. It's a small cemetery from a Civil War battle, a raised burial area with stone walls, surrounded by a larger stone wall, surrounded by woods... with a sign explaining not only the battle dead but that this was the geographic center of Alabama. There were about a million places to hide a cache. And I looked in all of them. I was determined that I would not be defeated. I was going to find this cache if it took all day. Without exaggeration I searched that place for four hours in the hot Alabama sun.

 

The GPS kept bringing me back to the memorial sign. I went over that sign and its pole and its base over and over. No joy.

 

Finally I am frustrated, exhausted, badly in need of water, so I quit.

 

I get home and look up the listing and... most of you probably guessed already... there IS no cache, it's a virtual. Yes, I cursed. I had never heard of a virtual. What the heck IS a virtual? I busted my hump for hours looking for something that was not there?

 

So that was my worst DNF day and my introduction to virtual caches (which would later become my favorite type, RIP).

 

It also prompted me to get a PDA so I could carry cache listings in the field!

[+webscouter.]

Today happened to be one of those days.

 

I found five caches and DNF'd seven. All park and grabs that should have been found in minutes.

[+SerenityNow]

We were caching with another couple in Bristol, Tennessee last year and had 35 DNFs in one day. Of course, we also scored 157 finds that day.

 

We still shake our heads in wonder about cachers that don't post DNFs.

[+briansnat]

I DNFed a cache that had over 90 found it logs without a single DNF among them. I was certain it was missing.

Someone found it two days later. Proof that I am the worlds worst geocacher. Only one DNF but it was a pretty bad one.

Edited October 26, 2009 by briansnat

[+Dtzz]

I had my worst DNF yesterday. 5 DNFs and 6th i saw the cache from 4 meters but there were so many muggels around and they didnt leave for 2 hrs. In the end I gave up. Fortunately i live not far from that place so this eve the cache is mine.

[+bflentje]

My worst day is 7 DNFs. Probably 20 attempts if I were to guess.

[+Skyjuggler]

I've had a few days went I've set out for about 10 and blanked completely... What I always enjoy however, is that after about the 2nd DNF you really lose spirits. Then, you find one and PRESTO, you love the game again...

[+rob3k]

I've DNFed 2 and Found 0 on three different occasions. One of those was my first day out.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Oddly enough my two worst days in terms of # of DNFs were on the last two Father's days (I took the day off both times). Two years ago I started off with 5 consecutive DNFs, had 8 total for the day but had 23 finds.

 

I had two DNFs yesterday while going out for a walk in the morning in Monterey (where I'm attending a conference for the next few days). One of them was a 4 star difficulty and the other a 3.5 star (both micros). I also found 10 caches, several with 3 star or higher ratings in an area I had never cached before.

[+Team Cotati]

Yeah, The Team went out a few weeks ago for a cache run. DNF'd about three found about 20.

 

Those three haunt me to this day.

[Skippermark]

We had 16 DNFs one day. We were caching in an area with lots of snow doing "available in winter" caches that were actually sitting directly on the ground. Grrrr.

 

When you're looking for a cache on the ground and there's 2 feet of snow on top of it, your find ratio isn't going to be very high.

[+ventura_kids]

When we DNF a large number of caches, we laugh and pick our FAVORITE DNF.

During our 413 find day, we had 24 Dnf's, but no one really cared.

A couple of weeks ago I DNF'd the first 3 caches I looked for..... so I quit for the day.

[+GeoGeeBee]

Sometimes the DNF's are more fun than the caches. Not to step on anyone's toes, but a 30 minute hike along a riverbank and another 30 minutes searching for a cache that's gone missing is still a lot more fun than driving up to yet another lamp post in a nondescript suburban parking lot to sign a slip of paper in a pill bottle.

 

But, to put things into perspective, I also look for Benchmarks. I have two on my list to go after that haven't been logged since 1943. The coordinates are "scaled" which means they could be off by as much as 600 feet. There's a good chance they have been destroyed. But when I go after them, I'll enjoy an afternoon of hiking along an abandoned railway line. I'll get plenty of fresh air and sunshine. I might see some wildlife. If I find the marks, that's a huge bonus. If I don't find them, I'll log the DNF and still call it a great day.

[+Parknet]

My 1st several outings in July '09. I think my 2nd day of caching was 0/6 in the rain. I didn't give up though! I still dnf easy ones but don't mind revisiting. I like to think I'm getting extra enjoyment out of the GZ.

[Dj Storm]

My worst day(s) consisted in a 3-day roundtrip seeking 2 caches; ended up DNF'ing both. Good hiking/camping/sightseeing experience, but bad weekend for geocaching.

[+macatac1961]

11/22/07 18 finds and 13 dnf's

 

In and around Allenwood, NJ.

[+moliveri]

The worst dnf was in a little park in a seedy neighborhood. My wife and I went around a corner in the trail to find some thug beating on a woman. Unarmed, and not looking for a fight with a local drug dealer, we beat feet, and left that cache for later. We returned a very short while later (now armed) only to find the area abandoned by the thug. The second time at the cache we did find the object of our obsession.

[xjassa]

I had taken a one year or so break from caching before I was married.

 

After I got married, I quickly loaded 4 or 5 caches on a local trail that I had cached before to have an enjoyable walk/hike with my wife.

 

All 5 were DNFs. When I came here previously, you had to look, but the ammo can *could* be found.

 

Now I found myself in strange areas with no places to find ammo cans.

 

Disappointed we went home and I logged on to GC.com to see what the deal was.

 

Thus I was introduced to "nanos".

 

Lesson learned. Until I get a GC premium membership, every cache from now on is religiously checked for "size".

[Skippermark]

11/22/07 18 finds and 13 dnf's

 

In and around Allenwood, NJ.

Note to self, scratch Allenwood, NJ off the list of places to visit when CT is snowed in during the winter.

[+out12]

I recently went for a numbers run with another cacher. Earlier this year we had gone and found over 50 caches on a numbers run with only three DNFs. This last time we headed to a park with 26 caches. We started on the north side of the park and only found two of ten we went to. Pretty sure we located the right location on most based upon the hints. We are guessing that someone removed most of the caches here for some reason. Suprisingly, we then crossed the road to do the others and found all 14 there. Add in three more DNFs along the way for a total of 11 on the day. Still managed 45 finds but a very frustrationg day for a while.

[+Parknet]

Today was one of those days. Started with an FTF run for a P&G. DNF. Next went for another new P&G that was found earlier in the day. DNF. Tried my luck with one I had DNF'd previously. Now I'm 0/3. So tried a small container that was recently found. DNF, 0/4.

 

So, I decided to go hide a cache instead. If you can't find 'em, hide 'em. Well, I found a great spot and submitted for review. While waiting, I was checking out aerial photos of the area and they were all under water! It appears the river floods the GZ periodically. GAH! Disabled the cache before it was published.

 

I'm going to bed. Definitely, my worst caching day yet.

 

ps. It turns out that FTF run was not found by anyone and the coords were updated. Going back for more punishment tomorrow!

[+power69]

Today I managed to log 5 DNFs in a row. Two of them were listed as easy park and grabs. As I trudged wearily away from the 5th one, I felt utterly defeated. A black cloud of ultimate despair hovered over me all afternoon.

 

Thankfully, I did go on to find 6 caches after the streak of DNFs, and my spirits revived to the point where I was enjoying the game again. But by golly, for a while there I felt like I was the worst geocacher that ever stumbled blindly through the wet woods.

 

What are your worst days, when you couldn't seem to find anything?

The P&Gs might have been muggled...

[+Too Tall John]

8 DNFs in 3 days is my worst stretch. Half of them were in one day. Not just that, but the four were consecutive searches! I was caching with flask. Her logs say it so much better than mine...

October 30, 2008 by flask

this is where things turned bad.

 

we looked and looked. and then we looked some more.

 

i was surprised to be looking for a cache at all, since i was expecting the cache in this park to have been the cache i had already found.

 

shame about the pizza place; that was good pizza.

 

anyway, totally unaware that things weren't going to get any better, we went here.

October 30, 2008 by flask

well, it wouldn't be much of a sport if you could find everything you looked for.

 

TTJ and i came from over here and we looked for a while in the great suckhole of doom and then i kind of left him to look for it while i took pictures of pretty red berries, and then i said i was ready to declare aiken, so we went here.

October 30, 2008 by flask

my, isn't this convenient! we get two handy DNFs out of one centrally located parking place.

 

TTJ and i made outr way over here in hopes that we might fined something, but we couldn't even find a reasonable (noun referenced in hint) within our practical search range.

 

then we adjusted our search area to reflect discrepancies between the given coordinates and the found logs, but all we got out of it was more time trudging up and down the hill.

 

then to add insult to injury, we went here.

October 30, 2008 by flask

we didn't find it.

 

you could hide a five gallon bucket out there and we wouldn't find it.

 

you could hide crashco out there and we wouldn't find him.

 

we came from here and we only went here because it was on the way out.

You'll notice I carefully copied the links in flask's logs into the quotes. I feel they are a vital part of reading a flask geocache log, so I included them, but you'll find clicking on the "here"s and "there"s will bring you to the previous or next log quoted. If you want more good reading, click on the links that refer to the previous cache & the cache after the last...

 

For those of you who read "i was ready to declare aiken" and wondered what she meant, she was referring to Sen. George Aiken (R-VT), who is attributed with saying of the Vietnam war "declare victory and get out." A phrase that I intend to adopt & use, hopefully with relative infrequency.

Edited October 30, 2009 by Too Tall John

[+flask]

oh. yeah.

 

there was that day...

[+Too Tall John]

oh. yeah.

 

there was that day...

Yeah, but I did get to meet some cool people, and...

My worst day caching was still better than doing chores.

I'll take a day of DNFs in the woods over a day of painting a house anytime. I should know. We just bought a house & had to repaint the whole 1st floor. Who paints their living room hot pink and their (easily-seen-from-said-living-room) kitchen orange?

 

...besides Dunkin' Donuts?

(No, really, those were the colors...)

[+flask]

you know, when i bought this place the bedroom was the most outrageous aquamarine color and the first thing i thought was "i gotta paint this over" but then the first morning i woke up in there i was so HAPPY and the color seemed perfect.

 

so it's still that color. people seeing it for the first time wear that same "this has gotta be painted" face.

[+griswell]

My worst day caching was still better than doing chores.

 

A hearty AMEN to that one!

 

I walked in circles for over three hours looking for one once. It was one of my first caches, so I was determined beyond all reason. I fell twice, scraped up my knees, got stung by yellow jackets, and discovered that in spite of tons of DEET, I still earned about 100 chigger bites. All for nothing. A big, fat, DNF.

 

But you know what? I burned a lot of calories doing it...and that gave me an excellent excuse to go eat a cheeseburger...or three.

[+Okiebryan]

How's this one for a good DNF day?

 

Oh, yeah. This cache is definitely a 5/5.

 

I came back down after solving for the coords to stage 2, only this time I brought help. I had checked the hour-by-hour forecast and it showed very calm winds for this evening, so as soon as she got off work she came over and we headed for Texhoma.

 

We spent about 10 minutes looking for stage 2, but only because we were looking in the wrong place. I was looking for a similar container to stage 1, combing the area where the GPS led me... when we expanded the search area a little, Barb noticed a little something in a tree. This drew our attention over to that area, where I spotted the very cool hiding place of stage two. It actually startled me a bit, but only for a split second. We got the puzzle for the final and made short work of that.

 

Well, now it's dark. I look at the location of the final on google maps and satellite view and chose the best place to launch. We drove over to that point, and noticed that the lake was as smooth as glass, just as promised. The wind was almost nil, a little cloudy, with the near full moon poking through the layer of clouds. We decided to go for it. It was 8:30PM.

 

We aired up the boat, loaded up flashlights (including extras), life preservers, oars, and an emergency air pump...just in case. Just as we launched from the shore, I said to Barb, "I hope this isn't one of those moments like in the movies where they say 'If only we hadn't....." Off we went with just over a mile to get to the cache.

 

We had a very nice trip across to the island. About halfway across, Barb asked me if I had a pen. I went into semi-panic mode for a second, but found one in my pocket. Phew! However, things were about to make a change. Just as we landed on what I thought was the right piece of land, the wind kicked up quite a lot. It's about 10PM at this point. We landed and took off across land to get to the cache. We were less than 3 tenths of a mile from GZ, but we found that the water was high and the island was not exactly connected. We can't get there across land! Ok, back to the boat.

 

Now the plan was to row around, skirting the edge of this island, to get to the place where we needed to be. I even aired up the boat again just to be safe. We launched and rowed around this little point to where we were now out in the open and no longer protected. After a few seconds, we realized that we were no longer in control. The wind was blowing us backwards. No matter how hard we rowed, we were not making forward progress. We stopped rowing and I looked around to try to figure out what to do. The wind was blowing us who knows where?

 

By now, the wind was breaking water over the side of the boat. That was a very scary feeling. I picked a spot on another part of the island and said, "Let's row for land over there". We rowed across the wind, and made it to shore. We beached the boat, the I started climbing to the high point so I could have a look around.

 

We found ourselves in a very surreal landscape. Sandbar in one place, large patches of soft bermuda in another. Oklahoma diamonds here and there. Dead standing trees all over the place with huge birdnests made of clusters of sticks. It was a very creepy place. It didn't take long to realize that we had 2 choices... wait for the wind to let up, or call for help. I found a place on the downwind side of the island that offered shelter from the wind, and this is where I decided to get on the phone. At this point it's about 11:00PM.

 

After getting past a dispatcher who couldn't exactly understand where we were or what help that we needed, we got a callback from an OHP Lake Patrol trooper. He was very nice, and assured us it was no problem to come help us. He told me more than once that he'd much rather come give us a ride tonight than to be dragging the lake tomorrow.

 

I offered him GPS coords to our location, but to my surprise, he told us that he didn't have a GPS receiver on his boat. I had assumed that would be standard equipment on the Lake Patrol. Anyway, he indicated that it would be an hour before he would get to us.

 

I debated whether to start a fire to keep warm. Barb and I decided not to since he would be there so soon. I started pacing, and Barb started texting and facebooking. I was VERY frustrated knowing that we were not going to claim the final tonight.

 

An hour passed, and the OHP Trooper called back. He said that he had "spun a prop" on his boat, and was dead in the water. He had already called out another Trooper who was going to come get us first, then tow him back to the marina. We were going to be here for awhile. Definitely starting a fire, now. Not only did this keep us warm, but it gave me something to do, which I very much needed. So now here we are, stranded on a very creepy little island with a boat we cannot use in these conditions, huddled around a little fire, thinking about how this poor OHP Trooper was at home, probably about to head for bed after the news and now he's in the middle of Lake Texhoma dead in the water.

 

Sometime after midnight, I spotted police lights coming across the water from a very long way off. I waited until they got closer and started signalling the boat with my maglite. Within about 35 minutes, we were climbing aboard the boat of Trooper #2. He wasn't quite as friendly as Trooper #1, but he was not angry or anything. At this point, I wouldn't have cared if he sent me home with a handful of tickets. Fortunately, he didn't. Barb told me I better not mention Geocaching to this guy, and I didn't.

 

We made it back to the car right at 2AM. We changed into dry pants and socks after deflating and putting the boat away. Barb was trying to figure out how we were going to get this cache, but I suggested that perhaps we should switch to the 5/5 over at Duncan Lake? Barb seems to think that we should try it again. I'm definitely torn...

 

Barb slept most of the way back to the city, and we made it home safe.

 

What an adventure.

[+atmospherium]

Thanks for all the great replies. I guess I'm in good company.

 

Oh yeah, another DNF tonight. An "easy" night cache that resulted in 2 1/2 hours of slopping my weary way through muddy fields, and two encounters with the Cops. Plus an additional phone call to the Police Department for good measure after I hauled my sorry self back home. I don't blame them; my car was parked in a remote area at night for over two hours, and I came stumbling out of the darkness splattered with mud, muttering under my breath about hiding something.

 

A cold drink, a hot shower, a good night's sleep, and I'll be rarin to go again.

[+Mr Smeee]

I took a day off work to hike and cache. Halfway through the day the batteries die died in my GPS. I always carry two backup sets of batteries. Replacing the batteries did less than nothing, they were both dead. Someone in my household had been tossing the bad ones back into our battery box. I worked for awhile using my crudely drawn maps, and was able to find one cache using that method. Ultimately I used a combination of my hand drawn maps and by turning on the GPS when I was within a close range (last few minutes of battery) I was able to find the rest. I missed two or three caches in my ‘blackout’ period.

[+OzGuff]

28 DNFs and 147 finds in 18 hours. Solo caching as I drove through Nashville. Was trying to cache for 24 hours but got bored. Maybe if I hadn't been on my own.