Starting in the Prime of Winter?!

[+IKnowAdrian]

Hey Guys --

 

I'm brand spanking new to Geocaching, literally just signed up two days ago, after checking out reviews I order a Garmin Venture HC (hopefully this is a good unit to begin with? If not I can still return it) It comes to today via FedEx, I'm super excited and want to go find my first cache right away!

 

The only problem is, where I live (Oakville, Ontario) we were just hit with a huge snow storm last night, which I believe is probably going to make the hunt a lot harder. So I was wondering if there are any tips for after a fresh snow fall for a new guy?

 

Also, side note, after looking over the locations I read that the ones with the question mark are supposed to be riddles to figure out the location, but the location is always posted at the top, is that location that is posted at the top of the cache page the actual location that I was figure out from riddle? Because that kinda defeats the purpose... I mean i know they have to some how categorize the cache so that they know it's near my home, but on a tough riddle it takes some real will power not to cheat and just look at the answer at the top!

 

Anyways, I hope to have a blast today, and i'm sure I will whether i find something or not!

 

Thanks in advance for all the advice!

 

Cheers

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

Welcome to the game Adrian,

Don't know about snow but those riddle (or more properly "Mystery" or "Unknown") caches are always listed with dummy coordinates - usually within a mile or two of the actual cache location.

So it's no good 'cheating' and going to the coordinates at the top of the page, there's nothing there.

Often you will see these dummy coordinates in the middle of a lake or some other unlikely place.

You are right, it's just a way to get the cache published with an approximate location so people know the rough area where the cache is going to be.

Sometimes these dummy coordinates might show a good place to park for when you have solved the puzzle or whatever you have to do to get the right coordinates.

The only people who know the actual coordinates where the cache is hidden are the cache owner and the reviewer.

Hope that clears that one up for you

Lovejoy

[+johnvanderlip]

I had the same problem, I was just introduced to caching during the middle of winter here in Montreal. I did a pocket query for caches found in the last seven days and looked at the logs to make sure I wasn't looking for something buried under a foot of snow.

[+burtsbodgers]

Hi and welcome along to the obsession.

First stay in the nice warm comfort of your home, Caching in the snow is hard!

Not only trying to find the cache but to keep it hidden from others, its easy to follow someone in the snow.

Instead have a look at the "?" puzzle caches, the Co ords at the top of the cache page are generally a starting point and the cache is generally within a couple of miles of the reported location. So you have to deduce from the cache page where the cache actually is,this is often easier said than done.

Have a look at a few and look at the difficulty of the cache and depending on your mind set select the easier ones to start with. Usually there will be a way in to the puzzle somewhere in the description, something like " i always play fair" this would give you a hint that it involves a "playfair" cypher (have a look for it in Wiki)What ever the puzzle involves you should at the end of it be left with a set of coords which will be where the cache is located.

So then go and look for it, some cachers use a checksum ( all the digits of the coords added together = checksum) or they use a geochecker with a link on the page. If the cache is not there you got it wrong.

But dont be afraid to contact the setter for a clue, they generally will help with a hint and after all they want the cache to be found.

Good luck

[+briansnat]

Winter is my favorite time of the year to geocache. Snow does present challenges and some of the challenges require experience. That said, even as a novice you can find caches in the winter. Look for caches with recent finds in the snow. Since you are a premium member you can run a pocket query to give you caches found in the past week.

 

You can also look for the "winter accessible" attribute. It looks like this . You can also run a pocket query to search for caches with this attribute.

[+gpicard]

Another option is to take a two week vacation in Florida and cache there!

 

(The previous posts have good advice too)

[+dfx]

Don't know about snow but those riddle (or more properly "Mystery" or "Unknown") caches are always listed with dummy coordinates - usually within a mile or two of the actual cache location.

So it's no good 'cheating' and going to the coordinates at the top of the page, there's nothing there.

 

not always, but most of the time. around here there's a few "puzzle" caches posted which actually do have something at the posted coordinates. technically those caches would probably be better listed as multis, but well, they aren't. anyway, in those cases it (almost!) always mentions the fact in the cache description, so the rule of thumb is: if it's a mystery cache and it doesn't tell you what to do with the coordinates, then they're most likely just dummy coordinates and meaningless. in the other cases, going to the coordinates wouldn't be cheating, it would be part of the proper cache hunt.

Edited January 12, 2011 by dfx

[+Team2Moo]

First off, welcome to the game, I hope you cope with addiction well My wife and I have been caching for about half a year now...and to be honest, i'm going through a bit of withdraw. We live in Pa, and our winters are usual snow covered. You have a few options, as other have stated. The Pocket Queries are a great idea if you're a premium member, or you can scour the site for any cache description that includes a P&G (Park and Grab) or C&D (Cache and Dash) or something to that effect.

 

These are caches that are usually really easy to find, and most the time in an urban-ish setting, so there is no hiking, or anything. Although these may be great for winter time, or just when your out and about and have the urge to cache... do yourself a favor, and when it warms up a bit, go on a nice long hike cache is your able...the places these guys find to hide caches are often beautiful. I know personally i wouldn't of known a lot of places even existed if not for caching. Anyways, welcome to the gang, and stay safe and have fun!

[knowschad]

When building your pocket query (you are using them, aren't you?) besides the option of looking for the Winter Accessable attribute that has already been suggested, you could check the box that reads, "Found in the last 7 days", which may or may not be helpful, depending on how long it has been since the snow fell.

 

If you do come to a cache and see footprints in the snow... take a minute before you barge in, and see where the tracks leading OUT are coming from. The tracks in may wander all over the place, but the tracks out are most likely the shortest route to the cache (assuming they found it, of course!)

 

I wear a pair of rubber coated gardening gloves. They seem to hold up the best when digging through crusty snow, and they are fairly inexpensive when they do wear out.

[+entogeek]

Pickering, Ontario here and winter can be one of the best times of the year to go caching thanks to the geotrail - footprints in the snow! My advice for now is to stick with some easy Traditionals with a D/T rating of 2/2 or lower that have the snowflake (winter accessible) attribute. Try and look for small, regular or large size containers first - leave the nanos alone for a few weeks unless it's a guardrail nano which should be easy to find. That way you won't run into DNF after DNF. Then when you start to feel adventurous, branch out into some easy multis and mysteries. Don't forget the virtuals either as they are a dying breed. Feel free to contact the cache owners for help if you can't find their cache. We hide them so they can be found!

Edited January 12, 2011 by entogeek

[+johnvanderlip]

I just spent 3 hours in the woods today with my snowshoes, found 7 out of 7. Great exercise and a lot of fun. I used to hate winter but I was actually thinking I'll miss it. Some of these caches would have been too easy to get to in the summer. The ones I found today would have been harder to spot with leaves on the trees though.

[+geocat_]

Welcome! I am new to geocaching as well and have made most of my finds in the snow. We probably have less than you do (here in Ohio) but you can use footprints to help if someone has recently found the cache and it's in a somewhat remote location. I am counting the days until spring though!

[+skullsoup432]

Living in Michigan, a few miles from Lake Michigan, we get "lake effect snow". My very first searches were after a foot of newly fallen snow.

 

I'm also new to Geocaching, and have only had two finds. Both without a GPS. One was at a guardrail/sign posts at the end of a dead end road. By the time my wife and I found the cache, we had left a million footprints up and down the guardrail, around snow banks, between signs. I don't think anyone would have guessed what we were up to. The left over footprints looked more like a group of children had been playing tag or something.

 

On our second "find", I inadvertently saw a picture of the cache container hanging in the open, when I had looked at it on this site. This was in a public park with a small stream running next to it. The cache was in a tree next to the stream. We took the log back to our truck to sign, and made sure we walked a different route in and out. I then walked up and down in line with the stream, stopping every few yards and shifted my feet or walked a small circle to make it look like I had not intentionally walked directly in and right up to the cache. It looked like I had been walking up and down the river bank, enjoying the view. My wife did the same. I don't think anyone would be able to pinpoint what our destination had been.

 

I'm on my way to get a GPS tomorrow morning. I plan on doing a lot of caching in the snow this weekend and am gonna try my best to "cover my tracks".

 

Well, if not cover them, do my best to throw those pesky muggles off my path. If this isn't possible because of to long a walk or something, I will wait till the snow melts. Or almost melts.

 

Sorry about the long post. My first post and already bored ya and wore out my welcome. Hee hee.

[+WhoDis]

Welcome to the game! The Venture HC is a great unit to start with, it's what I started with. Like others have suggested, look for caches that have been found since the snow fall, follow the tracks leaving ground zero. After you've got some experience under your belt, you won't need that kind of help. Skip the micros starting out also, look for the bigger sizes.

[+johnvanderlip]

I just reread your post and noticed you bought a venture HC, by coincidence my snowshoeing adventure yesterday was so I could try out my new venture HC. It's great. I was able to load the Ibycus topo maps for my area along with 500 caches. I had previously tried a magellan explorist GC and a Garmin Colorado 300 and didn't like either. Right away I liked the Venture HC, it's easy to use even while wearing gloves.

[sabrefan7]

Another option is to take a two week vacation in Florida and cache there!

 

(The previous posts have good advice too)

Welcome to the fun! I see you have 2 finds, WTG! Dont let a tiny bit of snow deter you. Those warm weather softies have no idea about winter recreation