How many did it take?

[+pmolan]

How many caches did it take before you got your vision?

 

Mine was about 70. I can now walk up to a GZ and spot that out of place rock and just know where it is. Maybe thats because most caches by me are ammo boxes in the woods buried beneath a pile of rocks or in a tree stump. I think I need to start looking for some that are rated more than 2 stars.

[+Chrysalides]

How many caches did it take before you got your vision?

After more than 1000, there are still caches that stump me. And I hope it remains that way

[vagabond]

Like the guy above and I'm 0ver 3800 I still get stumped, but sometimes those nanos in the bushes or the woods can really make you pull your hair out

[+BlueDeuce]

About 30 then on 31 and 32 and 33 and 34....etc I learned to never trust my eyes or put too much trust in my experience.

 

Maybe thats because most caches by me are ammo boxes in the woods buried beneath a pile of rocks or in a tree stump.

 

One day you will go out of your way to find such caches. I kid you not.

Edited April 30, 2010 by BlueDeuce

[+TreeSqueezers]

How many caches did it take before you got your vision?

After more than 1000, there are still caches that stump me. And I hope it remains that way

 

I don't have nearly that many, but if stop getting stumped. I'd probably stop playing.

[+HawkLawless1]

I don't really recall the number, but then again, I'm only at 166 right now. I have days that I'm really on my game and they almost jump out at me. Then there are other days it takes me a little while. Amazingly, the ones that I find the quickest are those that require a short hike or walk to get to. As I approach GZ, I'm already scanning for likely places. The PnGs tend to give me the biggest headache. Maybe do some puzzle caches.

[+hurleyanne]

I think it has more to do with frequency of caching than specific number of hides. Last winter I didn't take too much of a hiatus from caching, and had a pretty well developed geosense. This year I took more of a break this winter, and it's harder again.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I had the advantage of growing up in the country and being a hunter and outdoorsman all my life, so spotting things in the forest was second-nature to me.

 

There were far fewer micros when I started, too, so that gave me an early advantage as well... I suppose by fifty finds I had developed a geosense that still serves me well.

 

I found my first 500 or so pretty much alone, so when I started caching with others I had a huge advantage. I can still find them faster than most of the folks I cache with.

 

As others have mentioned, however, micro caches can still confound me, and I have my share of DNFs on caches of any type... geosense can only take you so far!

[+atmospherium]

I'm closing in on 500 finds, and micros give me fits every time. There's no such thing as an "easy grab" micro for me.

 

But that regular hide in the woods? I can spot the pile of sticks, fallen log, hollow tree, unusually placed rock from miles away. A few days ago I was checking up on one of my woods caches, and I found two letterboxes. I didn't know they were out there; I just noticed something from a distance that didn't look exactly natural. Flipped over the flat rock/crossed sticks, and there they were.

 

I felt pretty pleased with myself. But don't worry, it won't last. I'm going after a power trail of micros this weekend. Pray for me.

[McKeeFamily2]

Heh, we're on about our 13th find, and we stole the cache!

 

Some odd lookin bolt thing, that I didn't understand how to open - even though my oldest son handed it to me and said "Mom, it's a micro!"

 

I look at the thing he handed me, and said hmmm. It's welded. It's solid. Don't think that's it.

 

The pal we were with today - said "take it home to the hubby, he'll get a kick out of it."

 

so we did.

 

Handed the hubby the bolt looking thing, and he took a look for a sec. Then opened it right up - and there was the log book.

 

 

Ok, so can you imagine about how stupid I felt?

 

And NOW... I have to take that thing back!

[+BulldogBlitz]

How many caches did it take before you got your vision?

After more than 1000, there are still caches that stump me. And I hope it remains that way

 

i'm with you... there are some that can just keep me puzzled even though i see all those logs talking about what a nice PNG it was...

[+ngrrfan]

How many caches did it take before you got your vision?

After more than 1000, there are still caches that stump me. And I hope it remains that way

 

i'm with you... there are some that can just keep me puzzled even though i see all those logs talking about what a nice PNG it was...

One thing I do is to look at the difficulty ratings and then see how many PnG logs there are. There are some people who will write up a hide as "a simple PnG" just to tweak others who may have spent in inordinate amount of time looking.

[knowschad]

Heh, we're on about our 13th find, and we stole the cache!

 

Some odd lookin bolt thing, that I didn't understand how to open - even though my oldest son handed it to me and said "Mom, it's a micro!"

 

I look at the thing he handed me, and said hmmm. It's welded. It's solid. Don't think that's it.

The pal we were with today - said "take it home to the hubby, he'll get a kick out of it."

so we did.

 

Handed the hubby the bolt looking thing, and he took a look for a sec. Then opened it right up - and there was the log book.

Ok, so can you imagine about how stupid I felt?

And NOW... I have to take that thing back!

Funny story! (and a very nice avatar, by the way). However, it looks as though you haven't logged that cache yet. You should at least write a note to the cache owner so they can disable it until you can return the container.

 

Addressing the topic, I find that some days I'm nearly unstoppable, and other days I can't find a thing.

Edited April 30, 2010 by knowschad

[+redsox_mark]

I'm just over 500 finds and 1 year, but I still don't rate my geosense very highly. I can spot the common obvious hides in non-urban settings (e.g. a pile of sticks) pretty well; and that started around 100 caches or so. I'm getting better and the non-obvious hides, but still get stumped frequently.

[+Knight2000]

I can't remember that. Geocaching just seemed to make sense to me. I wasn't surprised at any skirts for the lamp posts or anything like that. Our 10th find or so was a film can attached to an evergreen with a cable tie. That stumped us. Once I figured out that hiding technique it all seemed like just another caching day.

 

*Edit to add that we only have 600+ finds so we are relative newbies too.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Knight2000

[+StarBrand]

Even today after 8+ years of doing this and 1000+ finds, there are days I can't seem to find a thing. 2 star difficulty with no DNFs until I add mine. A week later, I find the seemingly impossible ones within moments of arriving at ground zero. Geocaching is like that.

[+AuntieWeasel]

Depends. Hides in the woods, I'm right on it. Hides in piles of rocks? Awful. Rocks never look out of place.

 

Perversely, I got to be pretty good at urban nanos, because I hate, hate, HATE them. Anything where I'm out on the corner of 34th and Main with my hand up a lightpost's butt. My caching partner at the time loved to put those on the agenda and then double-dog dare me into them. My motto was, "okay, I found it -- CAN WE GO?"

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

But that regular hide in the woods? I can spot the pile of sticks, fallen log, hollow tree

Hides in the woods, I'm right on it

I went after a new placement "series" the other day, all deep in the northwoods. One of them was a multi (each stage was a small to medium container). Expecting to notice what is quoted above, and the fact that our leaves are not fully out yet, I anticipated some quick finds.

 

Boy was I wrong! Each and every one of those hides -- including the stages -- took a minimum of a half-hour at GZ to find. Excellent forms of camouflage, which BTW is different from "hiding". These relatively large containers were hidden pretty much in plain sight, but were unrecognizable.

 

They took so much time and I had a late start, I only managed to snatch up three. I "had" to leave two FTF's for somebody else to gather in. I gladly did so, as somebody else needed to enjoy getting to those GZ's w/o having the leaves, etc. scuffed up by another.

 

My hat is tipped to the CO for placing woods-type caches w/o the usual "flag-pole" alert for the hide.

It turns out, he had his kids with him, and was showing them just how to make GOOD hides.

 

Too bad that every geocacher doesn't get to experience these types of hides, especially prior to them rushing out to place their first hide!

[+AuntieWeasel]

Too bad that every geocacher doesn't get to experience these types of hides, especially prior to them rushing out to place their first hide!

 

One of my favorite hides was in a pine forest (hence low undergrowth). That sneaky so-and-so had put an Unnatural Pile of Sticks under every third tree in that whole flipping forest. The actual cache was way high in a tree, suspended from a rope.

[+roziecakes]

We only have 906 finds as of this morning (probably 950-ish by the end of the weekend), so I still consider myself to be a relatively noob, but I think at around 50 finds we started getting good geosense, but honestly, I get stumped by the weirdest ones.

 

For example, I found a 3/1.5 (or was it a 3.5?) micro at night with a flashlight and it was "part of the local scenery" shall we say, and I also found a bolt-head nano on a guardrail at midnight with a flashlight as well in about 20 seconds recently... but a 1/1.5 downtown stumped me. I had to make a second trip for it.

 

It was actually really easy. *facepalm*

[Andronicus]

I don't really recall the number, but then again, I'm only at 166 right now. I have days that I'm really on my game and they almost jump out at me. Then there are other days it takes me a little while. Amazingly, the ones that I find the quickest are those that require a short hike or walk to get to. As I approach GZ, I'm already scanning for likely places. The PnGs tend to give me the biggest headache. Maybe do some puzzle caches.

I would have to agree with you totaly. Somewere near 150, most of the short to long hike caches started popping out at me. Usualy in the first or second spot I look.

 

EDIT: In order to work on my difficulty/terrain matrix, I am planning some harder finds. We will see how that goes. You know, there realy are not many caches rated over 2.5 difficulty. Not only is it hard to find the cache container, it seems hard to find the cache page.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Andronicus

[+chachi44089]

At only about 30 finds, I have no sense..But my 9 year old daughter is quite amazing at finding them. I hope she helps me develope my senses. Seems I am only good at running that gadget with the buttons.

[+NeecesandNephews]

Don't know if I would call it Geosense, but I have developed a Geomindset!! Probably around number 50 or so.

 

Like TAR I have spent a lot of time in the woods. Learning to read animal sign, I can choose pretty good spots for a deer stand, a dove blind, where the quail are likely to be at a particular time of day, ect.

 

I have adapted that experience to Geocaching by not necessarily looking for the hide, but by tracking other finders to it!!

 

Being OCD perfectionist I notice things out of place quickly. What I find most interesting in this "mindset" is I have developed a better sense of what I even want to look for. I recently completed a smaller power trail of pill bottles. After about the thirteenth one, I got bored, but ran the entire trail anyways. (78) Now I can say I have done one. Would I do another? Probably, but it would be just about the numbers.

 

I am starting to develop that "why did you bring me here?" attitude! Searching listings has evolved from "taking any and all comers" to " a nano in the woods? Whats the point?" I look at a new LPC and instead of thinking "I have to run get that new cache" I think "well if I am in the neighborhood..."

 

I have developed a new appreciation for "crafty sneaky" hides, but have dismissed some others as "I bet they think that was clever, but I think its lame" Just as my hunting evolved from "anyone can shoot a deer with a high powered rifle and a good scope from a distance" to "I need to bow hunt where you have to get right amongst the deer", my caching has taken the same turn.

I still get stumped regularly on what turn out to be deceptively simple hides! And I am still amazed at the infinite number of ways to disguise a simple roll of paper! With more new variations appearing every day I have to say this is a pretty fun way to spend your free time. Especiall if you need your grey matter stirred frequently!!

 

This has also given me a new sense of "wow this would make a great cache container" or " that would be a great place for a cache". Its driving the wife crazy!

[zedhead36]

Ive only done 20 + so far but was getting cocky till i had 2 DNF's in a week !!!

[McKeeFamily2]

Funny story! (and a very nice avatar, by the way). However, it looks as though you haven't logged that cache yet. You should at least write a note to the cache owner so they can disable it until you can return the container.

 

Addressing the topic, I find that some days I'm nearly unstoppable, and other days I can't find a thing.

 

Thank you on the avatar

 

Yes, I did email the cache owner right when I got home, told them what happened - and asked if they would like me to replace the log. It's a bit tattered and full - speaking of - I best go check the email. Gotta run out for a while, and would like to replace that one asap.

 

What a noob.

[+ngrrfan]

How many caches did it take before you got your vision?

It all boils down to......

"Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield."

Some days I can spot a hide right as we walk up to GZ. Some days it takes me hours to find the ammo box, at eye height, on a post, in the middle of a football field.

[+ngrrfan]

Dang double posts 'cause the site responds so slowly.

Edited April 30, 2010 by ngrrfan

[+NeecesandNephews]

How many caches did it take before you got your vision?

It all boils down to......

"Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield."

Some days I can spot a hide right as we walk up to GZ. Some days it takes me hours to find the ammo box, at eye height, on a post, in the middle of a football field.

 

That were funny!!! I can relate. Recent convo while caching:

 

Wife; "Honey are you recalibrating your GPS?"

 

Me; "NO, I am trying to get the darn signal to settle"

 

Wife; "well when you get through playing around, the cache is right here!"

[McKeeFamily2]

 

Wife; "Honey are you recalibrating your GPS?"

 

Me; "NO, I am trying to get the darn signal to settle"

 

Wife; "well when you get through playing around, the cache is right here!"

 

Now That is hilarious!

[+NeecesandNephews]

 

Wife; "Honey are you recalibrating your GPS?"

 

Me; "NO, I am trying to get the darn signal to settle"

 

Wife; "well when you get through playing around, the cache is right here!"

 

Now That is hilarious!

 

Trust me the facial emoticons I used were very accurate!!! She is still laughing about it. And telling everyone. I think she could easily cache without a GPS.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

That were funny!!! I can relate. Recent convo while caching:

 

Wife; "Honey are you recalibrating your GPS?"

 

Me; "NO, I am trying to get the darn signal to settle"

 

Wife; "well when you get through playing around, the cache is right here!"

I cannot believe that you let the boss catch you eyeballin' the GPSr, when you shudda been lookin' for the cache!

 

Ahahahahahahahhhahahahahaaahhhaa...

[+NeecesandNephews]

That were funny!!! I can relate. Recent convo while caching:

 

Wife; "Honey are you recalibrating your GPS?"

 

Me; "NO, I am trying to get the darn signal to settle"

 

Wife; "well when you get through playing around, the cache is right here!"

I cannot believe that you let the boss catch you eyeballin' the GPSr, when you shudda been lookin' for the cache!

 

Ahahahahahahahhhahahahahaaahhhaa...

 

hey she believes I want her to go with me to spend some "quality time" together. I really want her to go cause she can spot them before I even get out of the truck!!

[+Upham]

I'm like a few others here, I've practically lived in the woods and can usually spot anything out of place. I don't have any trouble finding ammo boxes and lock n locks but these camoed pop sticks drive me crazy.

[McKeeFamily2]

That were funny!!! I can relate. Recent convo while caching:

 

Wife; "Honey are you recalibrating your GPS?"

 

Me; "NO, I am trying to get the darn signal to settle"

 

Wife; "well when you get through playing around, the cache is right here!"

I cannot believe that you let the boss catch you eyeballin' the GPSr, when you shudda been lookin' for the cache!

 

Ahahahahahahahhhahahahahaaahhhaa...

 

hey she believes I want her to go with me to spend some "quality time" together. I really want her to go cause she can spot them before I even get out of the truck!!

 

ROFLMAO!!!

 

Yeah I'm the emoticon Queen - I totally got it - which is why it was so dang funny, and still is!

 

Ha

 

"I see it!"

[vietitali]

That were funny!!! I can relate. Recent convo while caching:

 

Wife; "Honey are you recalibrating your GPS?"

 

Me; "NO, I am trying to get the darn signal to settle"

 

Wife; "well when you get through playing around, the cache is right here!"

I cannot believe that you let the boss catch you eyeballin' the GPSr, when you shudda been lookin' for the cache!

 

Ahahahahahahahhhahahahahaaahhhaa...

 

hey she believes I want her to go with me to spend some "quality time" together. I really want her to go cause she can spot them before I even get out of the truck!!

 

ROFLMAO!!!

 

Yeah I'm the emoticon Queen - I totally got it - which is why it was so dang funny, and still is!

 

Ha

 

"I see it!"

 

HA! LOVE LOVE! That story! I just wish my hubby would be here to share it w/ me. He's off on some errands.

 

HA HA .. why you think we bring McKeefamily2 with us? Or hop on their wagon? So THEY can find it and WE can have FUN

 

To answer the post .. I'm not so sure if I'll ever aquire a "geosense" .. I'm not enjoying it AS MUCH as I thought I would.

 

I attribute this MAINLY to b/c I use a chair and going around the woods on wheels ain't quite the mixure for an enjoyable time.

 

Like I told McKeefamily2 I can't just decide to get up and go by myself.

 

I have a 6yod who LOVES this !

 

I'm GREATFUL that McKeefamily2 is a cachaholic! I told them about it and pretty much overnight they need the 12 step program for curing purposes!

 

I will say .. our first cache was very aggravating. We put in the wrong coordinates and even checked them too! It took us to about 40 minutes south of where we were suppose to be .. AND we weren't even @ the destination yet! I had said about 30 minutes too late. I don't think this is right.

 

We stopped rechecked again, went back to our destination (the bolt that Mckeefamily2 stole ) and spent 20 minutes there and couldn't find it.

 

We gave up and went home. Our DD was crying. Said they don't exist. She was MAD

 

I told McKeefamily2 about geocaching and they loved it ... took us to a few spots that they found and now our DD has a new found love for it.

 

I'll probably never enjoy it as much as I'd like to. I enjoy it enough. As long as my daughter has an interest I'll keep going and doing what I can. If her interest ever fades, we'll probably stop.

 

If McKeefamily2 ever finds one of yals .. you're SURE to be in for a TREAT! For they take AWESOME care of your boxes! They are true and true cachaholics and a LOYAL one @ it!

[+Lovey Pigs]

not sure about an exact number, but for me EVERGREEN TREES are my downfall, for some reason everything blends in and i can not see the trees because of the forest....some how that relates to this??!!

[beekayy]

jaykayy and I have found that geocaching is a lot like trivia. With trivia, if you know the answer it's easy and if you don't know it it's hard. With geocaching, if you find the cache it's easy but if you don't it's hard. We've been geocaching about three months now and have found about 130 caches. We've quickly found ones that people have logged as hard to find but then have DNFs on ones that people have logged as easy. I guess that what makes it fun for us.

[+narcissa]

At least 500.

[+Scaber]

I have found almost 3000 caches and my cache vision still comes and goes. While it is true that I do not often come across cache types that are "new to me" sometimes I still have trouble with the ones right in front of my face. When the challenge is gone I don't want to do this anymore. With that being said, some afternoons I do question myself when finding skirtlifter after skirtlifter. Why am I doing this?

[+bittsen]

I'm not quite to 1000 caches but I still don't see obvious caches sometimes. I even miss the geotrails that are obvious.

Sometimes, though, I get that Bagger Vance psychic thing going and manage to see a cache spot before I'm even close to GZ.

[+Sol seaker]

It was around 100 for me.

 

The first ten or so I was pretty clueless. I could not have found them if someone had not been there showing me.

 

After 100 I was pretty able to cache alone.

 

I still find new containers sometimes. They like "evil" caches around here, so there is a lot of variety.

 

The longer I do it, the better I get at it it's true. I've gotten better within the last 300 I know.

[+woody_and_pip]

we hit number 14 today and I don't think we have had to search for one more than a few minutes. But I should let people know that Woody and Pip Geocaching is me and 4 of my kids (13, 11, 11, and 10). They start getting hyped up as soon as the GPS says 50 feet. Most of the time it is found before I get anywhere close. So far most of the ratings have been one or two. There was one micro that the kids couldn't find because I had to stand on a bench and feel for it with my finger tips.

[+KevinWinkler]

Not sure yet, maybe I'm a natural ... I spotted my first one before even getting out of the car this past weekend. Drove in knowing the area well from fishing there my whole life. I know there is not much room as far as land goes. The PWA is small and I know the land owners olong the side of the property would never give permission for a hide, so I pulled in and put the car in park. Looked out the window and there it was sticking out the top of a birch stump. I'll come back and reply once I have a 1000 under my belt and see if I'm feeling the same way. I know one thing, I'm going to need a new MMC card for the GPS.

[McKeeFamily2]

Well goodness!

 

I see the Vietitali's showed up in the forum! WOW - I AM impressed! I don't think them guys have ever been to a forum in their lives... whoo-hoo! First time for everything, and thanks for the awesome comments.

 

We just got a chance to replace our stolen cache today - wow. I was feeling so behind on that. Cache owner is a real sweetie. So far I've found that geocachers are a great group of people. No matter "how many it takes". Cache owners in particular. Seems that there is a wonderful feeling of doing something fun and nice for other people, which I guess is why we like it so much. It takes a lot to put some cool stuff out there, waiting to be muggled, never know if you will make someone's day or take a loss on yer cache - it is the passing it FORWARD that counts.

 

Does that make sense?

 

Ha!

 

I know what I mean, but find it hard to articulate it.

 

What is funny... is that it took a few times for the Vietitali's to get it through to me on what the whole "geocaching thing" was. Once I heard their daughter was so upset, I'm like - hmm. Let's check this out and see if we can find one, then if so - we'll show her how to find. Can't be that hard.

 

So we did, and later... the "little sis" found that hey - they really DO exist, and they are fun, and you CAN find them. (Course we were already hooked before we dragged them along to out first find.)

 

Funnier yet - this was the same dang cache - that we ended up bringing HOME!

 

How goofy is THAT? We figured, OK - we have a few good finds under our belt, so now let's go find that one that gave the Vietitali's so much trouble. We looked and looked. My oldest was right on the money, and we all thought that it was just some "thing" laying out there, that was NOT the cache. Couldn't be. hahahah! How WRONG we were! ALL of us. Except the hubby and the oldest.

 

Next time, think we'll listen and try a bit harder to figure it out, when one of the kids says - "Mom, it's a MICRO!" LOL!

[+Knight2000]

To answer the post .. I'm not so sure if I'll ever aquire a "geosense" .. I'm not enjoying it AS MUCH as I thought I would.

 

I attribute this MAINLY to b/c I use a chair and going around the woods on wheels ain't quite the mixure for an enjoyable time.

 

I'll probably never enjoy it as much as I'd like to. I enjoy it enough. As long as my daughter has an interest I'll keep going and doing what I can. If her interest ever fades, we'll probably stop.

I'll try to think of some caches that are more wheelchair friendly.

 

-Engine No. 9 in town can be done in your chair. The final is over grass but I'm sure you'll do fine.

-Spooky Tree

-Impossible Mission Force in Norton are both over grass and should be ok. (The IMF cache is trickier though so you might wait a while.)

-Listen to the Sound of Water wouldn't be too bad.

-Those Iced Tea Snaffles,

-Above Bikini Bottom,

-Two Gallons? (If you take an easier path in. If you can go in the woods you should be ok)

-Rogues' Hollow - History & Legends v1.0. The final for that is on a trail but it is hard packed and well defined. I'll try to think of more later.

 

You might find this site interesting if you haven't already seen it.

 

Welcome to the fun. Email me anytime for help. I'd even head out with you if you'd like. I'm just a few minutes away.

[+Knight2000]

Oh yeah, vietital, McKeeFamily2, and any other newer cachers. Being a regular reader of these forums will greatly enhance your effectiveness geocachng. I know of a cache that others had spent hours and hours on. I was able to find it immediately because of things I had learned on the forums.

 

You have to skip all of my posts for sneaky hides though!