Longest Single Visit Time Searching

[+T_M_H]

So what is the longest time you have searched for a cache in a single visit. I recently placed a multistage that I did not think was terribly difficult but the FTF took 11 hours to do it (mainly because of an older GPS that was not very accurate). I congratulated them in person on their dedication and mentioned that I would have given up long before that. When I have my son with me a search of more than 15 minutes is too much for him! LOL

[+Mr. Wilson & a Mt. Goat]

Sometimes I search for an hour (without realizing it'd been that long), then get frustrated and search some more....until I come to a conclusion:

 

It's either not there, or

It's just not my day....

 

(ok, maybe there are more conclusions then that.... I'll let you think of them)

 

Max for me is about 2-3 hours total on a cache.

[+dfx]

on the last FTF hunt we had been searching for about 50 minutes when we finally made the find (on a traditional). personally i had given up already

Edited October 14, 2010 by dfx

[+grafinator]

I've spent more than 3 hours searching for a cache, then realized I punched the coordinates in wrong.

[Clan Riffster]

We spent 15 hours hunting an urban micro, over a few trips.

I think the longest time spent there was 7 hours.

The cache owner showed up and bought us pizza.

(but wouldn't give any hints)

[+MaxiP]

About 3 hours (so far) looking for a D5 over two visits - we were in exactly the right place but just couldn't find it (very well hidden).

[+Stargazer22]

We spent around 6 hours on our first trip after one particularly difficult micro in the woods. Wound up making 4 trips total and put in somewhere around 14 or 15 hours finding it.

The only reason we were willing to spend so much time on it was that it was the last one in a series and we wanted to finish the series.

[+power69]

if its a 999999999999999 rocks hide, i'll flip 50 and if no find, no big loss.

5 minutes max if its a blinkie on that blasted black wrought iron fencing.

the more effort i put in GETTING to gz, the longer i'll look.

[+Ecylram]

For Ceder bushes and the like, my new limit somewhere between 30 seconds to a minute.

 

I've spent 3-4 hours, over multiple trips, for 3 or 4 difficulty caches (my one '5' was just a few minutes). My time limit per visit is somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour.

 

I agree with the earlier statement that the time goes up with the difficulty and time required to get to the site. But...I'd say the time varies depending on my interest in the cache. A leaky film cannister in a bush isn't worth my time. A sophisticated hide with some sort of emotional 'payoff' I'd be willing to spend hours.

[+lomocacher]

I recently spent 4 hours searching for a micro in the woods. A fall on my backside and finding a snake were all I got from it Although, the hike led me to a very beautiful area that I enjoyed

 

I'm curious about a related question. . .if the hunt leads you to a pleasant location, are you likely to spend more time, either searching for a cache, or just enjoying the area after the cache is found?

[+roziecakes]

I think the most we've ever spent on a cache was about 2 hours, and it was our second find. Nowadays I won't spend more than 30 minutes, but I DO spend time enjoying the location, at every find (if possible).

[+BaylorGrad]

My longest time to search for a cache was 3 hours... I actually visited the cache for the past 3 Thursdays (Sept 23, Sept 30, and Oct 7), and found it just as I was about to give up on October 7. Interestingly, it was a 3-star edge-of-the-parking-lot type of hide. Turns out it was easy, but the coordinates were bad... I hate that.

[+TerraViators]

A friend and I searched for about an hour and a half on a cache after finding it was 550 feet off from the posted coords.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I wonder how much these four words apply to some of the long searches mentioned so far;

 

Cache on a Tank

 

The longest amount of time I've spend was for a nano on an old steam train. I made four visits to the location and spent about 3.5 hours total before I finally found. Since I found it the CO has added two additional hints that really narrows down the search area. Coincidentally (for those reading another thread about a difficult cache) the CO had no previous hides and only one find from four years ago. Although it didn't turn out to be the case that because it was the CO's only hide there was always the suspicion that perhaps the coordinates were not real accurate or the the CO didn't exactly comply with all the guidelines (i.e. the cache was buried). It turned out that it's just a really hard cache to find. It's been on my watch list pretty much since it was published; two of the most recent DNF logs suggested that it's missing (I doubt it).

[+Ecylram]

A friend and I searched for about an hour and a half on a cache after finding it was 550 feet off from the posted coords.

Had one like that a few weeks ago. Coordinates were slightly over 550 feet off. New cacher placed it a few weeks after starting and hasn't logged on in months. Last I checked there were at least two NM's and many comments, some which included corrected coordinates. It wasn't fun.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Ecylram

[+ventura_kids]

One time we spent over 7 minutes....at ONE cache.

[GPS-Hermit]

The longest for me has been about an hour - I never time myself but get frustrated sometimes at my abilities to find a cache. This usually happens when the signal is all over the place and after many approaches I just can't get the GPS to settle even close to a search area. I look anyway but not hopeful of a find. One cache that is not even hard, I have returned to on 3 separate occasions and have never found it. So maybe my answer on this one is 3+ hours cause I am still trying to find it, and still getting bad signal in this one place.

[+redsox_mark]

For me, about an hour. And seldom more than 30 minutes; I just get bored looking in one place for a long time. And for me it's more about the journey (and getting exercise) than the find; the longer I spend looking in one place, the less walking I get to do!

 

I've done multi-caches which take more than a day; so it's not that I'm against putting a lot of effort in for a single find. It's just looking for a long time in one place which I have a short attention span for.

[+MR57]

So what is the longest time you have searched for a cache in a single visit. I recently placed a multistage that I did not think was terribly difficult but the FTF took 11 hours to do it (mainly because of an older GPS that was not very accurate). I congratulated them in person on their dedication and mentioned that I would have given up long before that. When I have my son with me a search of more than 15 minutes is too much for him! LOL

After 30 minutes I get a headache.

[+E = Mc2]

The longest single visit for me was 6 hours, but that was a 12 stage cache and I drove 138 miles to DNF it. Turns out there was an error on one of the stages and, after that was corrected, I found it after two minutes of searching.

 

Counting separate attempts: One of Show Me The Cache's caches took 12 trips and about 7 hours before I finally saw the light and started looking in the correct spot. Coords were good, I just wasn't thinking outside the box.

[+JoLTeam]

We set our maximum search time to 30 minutes for a traditional, and 15 minutes for each stage of a multi.

[+Chokecherry]

For a single trip probably an hour is my top for searching. For multiple trips probably 15-20 hours.

 

I typically will give about half an hour for searching for a traditional and like 10-15 minutes for steps in a multi. For micros and nanos I typically give a lot less time. Just don't have the patience for that needle in a haystack stuff. Too many cool things to see and caches to get.