Coordinates Way Off

[estrelle]

I recently attempted to find a certain geocache here in Portland, Oregon. I only found it with assistance from a more experienced fellow cacher who had finally made a breakthrough after trying for THREE YEARS to find this thing. It turned out the coordinates were 135 feet off! Worse, the cache owner should have known there was a problem because the only cacher in the past two years to find this cache mentioned finding the hide 135 feet off. Nonetheless the CO told my friend (the other cacher) that his coordinates were right, even though they were wrong, causing my friend to continue searching the wrong area. Who knows how many other people have been trying to find this cache for months or years but have not logged a DNF. The cache owner has been notified of the problem, and several "needs maintenance" flags have been given, yet the cache is still up.

Moral of the story: check the logs if you're having difficulty with a cache, log your DNFs, and if you're a cache owner and get a lot of DNFs, check to make sure everything is in working order (especially if someone mentions that they found the coordinates to be off)!

[+ventura_kids]

If I see a bunch of previous Did Not Finds (DNF), I always read the logs and search for clues hidden in them. Usually there will be a few " expanded our search radius" or " poor coords" comments buried in them. Since someone had already noted the poor coords, I would add a direction in my log.... such as "expanded our search 135 feet North and found it".

We used to love EMC of Northridges logs. When she was a newbie, she would post the coords where she found the cache.....on every cache.

 

[+L0ne.R]

I recently attempted to find a certain geocache here in Portland, Oregon. I only found it with assistance from a more experienced fellow cacher who had finally made a breakthrough after trying for THREE YEARS to find this thing. It turned out the coordinates were 135 feet off! Worse, the cache owner should have known there was a problem because the only cacher in the past two years to find this cache mentioned finding the hide 135 feet off. Nonetheless the CO told my friend (the other cacher) that his coordinates were right, even though they were wrong, causing my friend to continue searching the wrong area. Who knows how many other people have been trying to find this cache for months or years but have not logged a DNF. The cache owner has been notified of the problem, and several "needs maintenance" flags have been given, yet the cache is still up.

Moral of the story: check the logs if you're having difficulty with a cache, log your DNFs, and if you're a cache owner and get a lot of DNFs, check to make sure everything is in working order (especially if someone mentions that they found the coordinates to be off)!

 

Good on you for logging a NM. It may be the only way to get the CO's attention. Maybe the reviewer in your area will help, if the CO doesn't make the change to the coords.

[+Knight2000]

Lots of people think that their GPS is right no matter what. Sometimes this happens. Last May I found a cache that was 170' off. Myself and two other cachers were searching for this new cache. It took us 30 minutes until we found it. Fortunately it was a big cache. We just kept broadening our search until we found it. The coords were changed later by the CO.

 

Whenever it is over 50' I usually post a waypoint in my log. If a previous finder did this and the CO has not updated it I will also re-post the waypoint in my log to help the next cacher. (Since PQ's only hold 5 logs.)

[estrelle]

 

We used to love EMC of Northridges logs. When she was a newbie, she would post the coords where she found the cache.....on every cache.

 

 

For some reason I find that kind of adorable. Bless her heart.

[+Cache O'Plenty]

135 feet deserves posting your "track", not just the waypoint.....

[+Isonzo Karst]

Please tell us that when you found it, you checked "add a waypoint to the log" and then did that!

 

Some cache owner's return to the site and hunt the cache with the coords in their gps. They find it! wow. Coords must be good.

 

They don't notice that the coords on the cache page aren't the coords in their gps.

Those pesky numbers -- funny how .558 isn't the same as .585

[+Harry Dolphin]

The problem with that is that it is a mystery cache. So, that would not be proper.

My question is: The solution seems to take one to a spot where the coords to the final are written. Was the object at that spot moved 135 feet? Or was that object in the proper place, and the final 135 feet off from where the final coords lead?

If I find a traditional that is off (I FTFed one that was .18 mile off), I have no qualms about posting the coords that I found.

[+swizzle]

GC1BB52

 

This one is off by 300+ feet. If it wasn't for someone else posting the coords we never would have found it. I think the only reason for the coords being so far off is the fact there's another cache a couple hundred feet up the road. 39 people have found it and they all say the same thing that the coords need to be updated because they lead you to a no tresspassing, construction zone across a busy highway. She changed the log in the cache but hasn't attempted to change the coords. Whatcha gonna do? Swiz

[+briansnat]

GC1BB52

 

This one is off by 300+ feet. If it wasn't for someone else posting the coords we never would have found it. I think the only reason for the coords being so far off is the fact there's another cache a couple hundred feet up the road. 39 people have found it and they all say the same thing that the coords need to be updated because they lead you to a no tresspassing, construction zone across a busy highway. She changed the log in the cache but hasn't attempted to change the coords. Whatcha gonna do? Swiz

 

Email the reviewer.

[+Too Tall John]

From the cache description:

Final Coordinates can be found at N aa bb.ccc W dee ff.ggg

So, once you solve the puzzle, you go to the coords, and the coordinates to the final can be found there. According to the cacher who's been hunting this for 3 years:

Until the offset was posted it wasn't clear to me the calculated wasn't the final and I think I'd seen this mark before and overlooked it.

So, this cacher was looking for the final at the puzzle coords, and missed the fact that there was another set of coords to be found. They had been looking at the answer all along and missed it, from what I'm reading.

[estrelle]

The problem with that is that it is a mystery cache. So, that would not be proper.

My question is: The solution seems to take one to a spot where the coords to the final are written. Was the object at that spot moved 135 feet? Or was that object in the proper place, and the final 135 feet off from where the final coords lead?

If I find a traditional that is off (I FTFed one that was .18 mile off), I have no qualms about posting the coords that I found.

 

I'm 99.9% sure the object on which the coords are written has not moved.

[estrelle]

From the cache description:

Final Coordinates can be found at N aa bb.ccc W dee ff.ggg

So, once you solve the puzzle, you go to the coords, and the coordinates to the final can be found there. According to the cacher who's been hunting this for 3 years:

Until the offset was posted it wasn't clear to me the calculated wasn't the final and I think I'd seen this mark before and overlooked it.

So, this cacher was looking for the final at the puzzle coords, and missed the fact that there was another set of coords to be found. They had been looking at the answer all along and missed it, from what I'm reading.

 

That isn't correct. He was looking ten feet off from where the final coordinates should have been. The offset is only ten feet. The final coordinates/waypoint were/was 135 feet away from where they/it properly should have been (without applying the offset to the waypoint). So it wasn't even just 125 feet off, but a full 135, according to the last 3 people to find the hide (me, my friend, and the person a year and a half ago).

[+The Jester]

The problem with that is that it is a mystery cache. So, that would not be proper.

I've posted my offset (x.xxx N/S y.yyy E/W) on multi/mystery caches when the co-ords are way off. It can help finders, but doesn't give anything away.

[+Castle Mischief]

GC1BB52

 

This one is off by 300+ feet. If it wasn't for someone else posting the coords we never would have found it. I think the only reason for the coords being so far off is the fact there's another cache a couple hundred feet up the road. 39 people have found it and they all say the same thing that the coords need to be updated because they lead you to a no tresspassing, construction zone across a busy highway. She changed the log in the cache but hasn't attempted to change the coords. Whatcha gonna do? Swiz

 

Email the reviewer.

 

Spot-freaking-on.

[estrelle]

The problem with that is that it is a mystery cache. So, that would not be proper.

I've posted my offset (x.xxx N/S y.yyy E/W) on multi/mystery caches when the co-ords are way off. It can help finders, but doesn't give anything away.

 

I might do something like that if I have the opportunity to go back there and find the exact data, but I think the other cacher's log should be sufficient. In that area there are only a few of the "things" he referred to. I wish the CO would take responsibility and fix his cache description, though.

[Skippermark]

Lots of people think that their GPS is right no matter what.

I've seen people hide caches that they say are easy. People try it but DNF. After several DNFs, the owner checks the coords and says they're "perfect." More DNFs. Eventually someone finds it and says the coords were 70 feet off and posts new ones in their log. Others that find it say they found it quick using the coords posted in so and so's log.

[Skippermark]

I wanted to add that a lot of cachers don't fully understand the capabilities of the website and may not know that they can do things like update coordinates.

 

A new hider in our area put out a cache, and the posted coords on the site ended up being wrong. They confirmed they were wrong and posted them as a note in the logs.

 

After finding the cache, I emailed them to let them know they could update them themselves, or if the distance is too far, they could ask our reviewer to do it.

[+Team Cotati]

If I see a bunch of previous Did Not Finds (DNF), I always read the logs and search for clues hidden in them. Usually there will be a few " expanded our search radius" or " poor coords" comments buried in them. Since someone had already noted the poor coords, I would add a direction in my log.... such as "expanded our search 135 feet North and found it".

We used to love EMC of Northridges logs. When she was a newbie, she would post the coords where she found the cache.....on every cache.

 

 

We've implemented an even better solution..................we delete them.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Lots of people think that their GPS is right no matter what.

I've seen people hide caches that they say are easy. People try it but DNF. After several DNFs, the owner checks the coords and says they're "perfect." More DNFs. Eventually someone finds it and says the coords were 70 feet off and posts new ones in their log. Others that find it say they found it quick using the coords posted in so and so's log.

 

Yes. I got a very stern lecture from a cache owner, suggesting that I should learn to use a GPS. He insisted that his coords were correct! He had set it out to demonstrate how to use the GPS to some boy scouts. When the boy scout camp had an open house, I checked by the description. (Out the mess hall, make a left, near the boat house...) DNF. He said I was really stupid. It wasn't at the boy scout camp, it was near a private camp. I checked with the private camp, and was told I would need special permission to be on their property to follow the directions. The coords were well over a mile off! With no logical way to find the cache using them. And I'm stupid for not knowing how to use a GPS?!? The cache was archived for 'either being missing, or for the coordinates not being corrected." (Cache owner lives 75 miles away.)

Yes. Some CO's are unwilling to accept that they may be wrong. Reminds me that I should hide a cache near the listed coords. It's a pretty areas.