finding caches

[austy]

I'd like to be able to say I found my first cache, but this is the second try at an easy location, coordinates given, but still no cache. My GPS said I was within 1m but short of digging up all the leaves around the shrubs in a very highly populated bus stop area, I just couldn't find the cache. (Past your (pasture) Prime). This is my second failure today. Yuk.

[+Brainerd]

Don't despair. Start with a virtual cache or two. This can help hone your zeroing in technique. Approach the target from 3 angles, and you will get a better fix. It's called triangulation.

 

Here's a relatively easy virtual near the cache you couldn't find First Post - Ottawa.

 

I've always found the cache (only 17, though), however, I have had to look for 30 minutes on ones where people posted that it was an easy find.

 

Once you find a few, you'll start to identify good places to put the cache. A pile of rocks. Some low branches in a bush. You learn as you go. You can spend 20 minutes searching, and when you find the cache, you will look at it and think, "that was so easy, why did it take so long to find it?". Welcome to the fun and frustration of Geocaching.

 

Here's a regular cache in your area that has some good logs on finding it. Lunch Box

 

I hope these tips and caches prove to be helpful.

 

Happy hunting,

Tom

 

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau

[+briansnat]

You may be trusting your GPS too much. Even though it said you were within 1 meter, because of the margin of error in your unit, as well as the cache placer's unit, the cache could be as much as 10 and maybe even 20 meters from the spot your unit said was ground zero.

 

"Au pays des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois"

[+Brainerd]

quote:

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Originally posted by BrianSnat:

You may be trusting your GPS too much.

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You may also be trusting the "creator of the cache's" GPS too much. They also may have been off by as much as 10-20 meters. Then add your unit's margin of error, it could be 30 meters away! Typically, you should get to within 10-20 meters of the cache. Reading the logs will help you know if the original coordinates are way off.

 

Just remember to triangulate. Another technique is to walk perpendicular to the suspected cache location. Watch your directional arrow till it turns to 90 degrees, then turn and charge!

 

Happy hunting,

Tom

 

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau