But I Don't Want Too.....

March 25, 2011

I honestly don't remember how I came to learn about geocaching. I think it was from someone telling me about the Best of the Bad Mega this summer. How ever I learned about caching the result was the same. I fell instantly in love with it. It combines all of my favorite things! I love the outdoors and grew up in the bush, literally! I love to go sight seeing and find those obscure yet cool things in the middle of no where. For instance I had no clue there was a honest to goodness Ghost Town within an hour of where I live, until it popped up on a PQ of mine. I am lovin' Geocaching!

Sounds good, right? Arg!!! Snow!! :angry: Why did I learn about geocaching in the winter? Why did I buy a new gps in March?

I was so excited yesterday when my New-to-Me PN-40 (Thanks Gunguy&fam!) arrived at my door that I bundled up the kids to go test it out. First cache is under roughly four feet of snow. Okay, Next! Ah ha we found it! We think!?! If it is what I think it is it is Encino Manned in Ice! Why????? Oh yeah it's winter despite what the calendar says. In the last five days we have had pretty near one foot of snow.

Okay, okay, I hear ya. Check the attributes, right? Wrong, many, if not most, of the caches in the area are pre-attribute and have not been updated. Check to see when they last were logged? That is a great idea friend. But just because they haven't been found doesn't mean they couldn't be found. Or does it?

So today I decided to head to greener pastures and do some running around that needed doing. So I headed to the nearest city thinking maybe some urban caching would be more winter friendly. I was wrong. At least on the caches I picked.

Thanks for letting me rant! I feel better now. Is anyone else getting frustrated with snow? Let's hear all about it. Let's get some angst against the weather going and hope for spring to come blasting in here and get the poor imprisoned caches free of their icy captivity.

March 25, 2011

Oh, man!

I love that candy you guys make. Whenever I go to the movies I get a box of your candy and a box of JuJubes and sit next to some...oh, wait.

Sorry. Those are Mike & Ikes.

Yeah, I just found out about caching a few months a go. Right about that time we had some good snowfalls, too. My only condolences were that I worked 10 hour days, 7:ooam to 5:30pm. It was dark when I went to work, dark when I got off work.

The weather here in the US is getting better, so that helps. The time has changed, so that helps. I lost my job, so that helps. And sucks. Especially when my F150 gets 10 miles to the gallon.

See, but now I can sit up all night long being obnoxious on the forums, sleep till noon, then cache half the day.

Who needs a job? I can do without natural gas as I won't need heat soon and I can cook in the microwave.

Water? Ah, I can go a looooong time without bathing or washing clothes. Water is overrated anyways.

However, I do need electricity. I don't care about unnecessary things like lights and my breathing treatments. Just my computer. And microwave. Yeah, microwave, too.

Then there's COMCAST (the pig face lying bungholes). Guess I better pay them for my high speed Internet.

Well, it's three am. I need gas to go caching tomorrow. Hope my neighbours are asleep.

What did I do with that syphoning hose and gas can?

March 25, 2011

I feel your pain... I got into caching this fall and I soon had to learn to love snow caching In some instances it really helped to have snow on the ground. A cache in a tree was easier to get to when standing on a pile of snow for example. Faint geotracks made me decide it was worth it to get snow in my boots and check out the obvious hiding place. And one "under a bridge" cache was MUCH more entertaining and challenging since the easy staircase down was buried under snow and I had to take another way down. I think I stood in snow to my hips at one point. Great fun!

Recently found can be helpful, but also check the previous logs. Was it found in the middle of winter last year? Should be possible this year too! I've done a lot of research before going out to try to avoid impossible caches. Yesterday I finally found one that I had DNFed twice this winter. Yeah, it was easier without all the snow on top of it...

And sometimes the place itself is really beautiful in winter, even if the cache itself is under 2 meters of snow. I go there, try my best, enjoy the location and then write an epic DNF

38.2k · March 25, 2011

Not really a getting started issue. Moving tho the general forum

10.2k · March 25, 2011

Normally if someone asked about caching in the snow on March 24th, I'd ask "are you in Nunavut"? But I have snow on the ground right now too. :anibad: As a matter of fact, I will be blowing off placing a cache this weekend (already picked the location, a rocky hillside). I still cache all winter, but once the snow hit's that magic level of 6 inches or more, you just have to know you might come away with a DNF on a cache in the woods that is on the ground.

March 25, 2011

I sympathize. I'm in central Indiana, and I snow-cached for about 3 months. (Doesn't seem like a long time, but for someone raised in Houston it sure is!) One of the toughest caches I ever looked for during snow season was one that was on the ground and in the woods. Can't tell you how many times I almost crushed the cache by stepping on it before I eventually found it!

But I'll agree with what others say--snowcaching certainly does add a new and interesting factor to caching. But I think most of us can agree that if the snow hasn't melted by the end of March, we're more than ready for a little warm(er) weather caching!

March 25, 2011

We had a scare the other day in Southeast PA when we got up to go to work and discovered a blanket of the fluffy white stuff on the ground. It had been 74 degrees a few days before and had really charged the caching senses, so to speak. So to see snow after that, oh man, soul crushing, I tell you!

Wintertime made me happy for park and grabs. Even some of the typical C&D's weren't even reachable because of giant snow piles. Ugh...winter.

1k · March 25, 2011

I am tired of winter for plenty of other reasons.

I did start to get a bit lazy following other peoples footprints in the snow right up to some hard-to-find caches.

19k · March 25, 2011

Why would you have to wait until the snow is gone? Get out there and start having fun! If you don't want a bunch of DNFs, you could load up only caches that have been found recently. Wear the right clothing... waterproof pants are very helpful, because you won't be so hesitant to kneel in the snow (and won't get your pants wet if you do), warm clothes, and durable gloves/mittens (so you can scratch through the snow without tearing holes in the fingertips too quickly).

March 25, 2011

Sometimes you just have to change your approach in winter. I use a variety of methods:

On Land:

On the Water:

And in Colorado, the ever popular:

Use your imagination :laughing:

38.2k · March 25, 2011

Well the snow here finally melted, then we received a few inches the past few days, but not enough to really affect finding most caches.

But I did plenty of snow caching this winter. Found caches under as many as 3 feet of snow. It is much easier if you are a veteran geocacher and know the kinds of places to look. Maybe you can find long time local cacher to tag along with.

March 25, 2011

I hear ya! I'm in AB, too and this fog and frost is killing me! I can't get a good read. I went out this morning to find 3 caches and I only found one.

A few weeks ago I was walking, carefully, to a cache. Everything is fine then all of a sudden FWOOMP! I get sucked into the snow crotch deep! I figure "Well, maybe it's just like this in a limited area.". So I wrench one leg out, move it forward and down it goes again. I'm stupid enough to do this for about 20ft before I start to get wore out. So I had to wade my butt outta there. Sucks 'cos I was maybe 70 ft from the cache. It'll have to wait.

If you'd like a caching partner one day, let me know when you're in the area!

Edited March 25, 2011 by Vheather

March 25, 2011

I feel your pain! I went to Victoria on a fast weekend trip the end of Feb...planned on finding some caches while there. Should be safe in Victoria, right? Not. Got there the day after they got about a foot of snow dumped, not fun walking around in that wet slop in the wind. sigh. Did manage to find one, the rest I delayed til my next trip in better weather.

9.4k · March 25, 2011

Normally if someone asked about caching in the snow on March 24th, I'd ask "are you in Nunavut"? But I have snow on the ground right now too. As a matter of fact, I will be blowing off placing a cache this weekend (already picked the location, a rocky hillside). I still cache all winter, but once the snow hit's that magic level of 6 inches or more, you just have to know you might come away with a DNF on a cache in the woods that is on the ground.

Ski season in Colorado is open through the end of June and we're pretty far from Alaska.

That said, this year we've had a very mild winter. March is our snowiest month and we've hardly had any.

March 25, 2011

A lot of great responses. Thanks to all.

It's not that I don't enjoy getting out in the snow. I am an avid snowboarder and used to do biathlons in my teens. I have snow shoed and have Army Cadet winter survival training. It's just that the snow is 4 feet or more deep here still. Vheather, I had the same thing happen yesterday. Walking off trail towards the cache in knee deep snow. 32m to go straight ahead. 1m further and FWOOMP! I was in it up to my belly button. I considered slogging through but I knew that the cache was on the ground and didn't fancy having to try and locate it in the area under all that snow. Now if I had some scuba gear I might be tempted. :blink:

I am going to try and do some cherry picking this weekend. Look for a couple that have been found this last week and just go get em. I have to say that I just can't wait for the weather to support geocaching rather than make it more challenging. I am new to this and the caches are hard enough to find with my newby eyes that I don't need 4 feet of snow getting in the way.

March 25, 2011

You could have the tease we had!

All our snow melted (all 3ish feet of it), the sun was shining, temperatures were around 9 degrees C. The buds were coming up, the ground was thawing, and then the next day we had a snow storm and got dumped with another foot of brand new snow.

2.2k · March 26, 2011

For instance I had no clue there was a honest to goodness Ghost Town within an hour of where I live, until it popped up on a PQ of mine.

Not to detour the thread, but which ghost town? (I'm an avid ghost towner as well as a cacher.)

March 26, 2011

For instance I had no clue there was a honest to goodness Ghost Town within an hour of where I live, until it popped up on a PQ of mine.

Not to detour the thread, but which ghost town? (I'm an avid ghost towner as well as a cacher.)

Try this one....TV Show Ghost Adventures highlighted Vulture Mine in AZ....there is a virtual cache there....it is an incredible place!

1.3k · March 26, 2011

You could have the tease we had!

All our snow melted (all 3ish feet of it), the sun was shining, temperatures were around 9 degrees C. The buds were coming up, the ground was thawing, and then the next day we had a snow storm and got dumped with another foot of brand new snow.

Same here...and the temps are supposed to remain below freezing for the next few days, so it won't melt much.

What I usually do once the snow is gone is to start mentally saving caches for the next winter. Caches that require long walks in the woods...better to do those when the snow is gone. Quick park and grabs, save those for those winter days when there is two feet of snow and you just want to get out of the house for a bit.

March 26, 2011

For instance I had no clue there was a honest to goodness Ghost Town within an hour of where I live, until it popped up on a PQ of mine.

Not to detour the thread, but which ghost town? (I'm an avid ghost towner as well as a cacher.)

As the ghost town is also likely barried in snow I will allow it :anibad: It is Valley Ghost Town not to far from Drumheller AB and about 50km away from where they are hosting Best of the Bad Mega.

The other day me and the kids were out walking around town throwing snow balls and generaly making trouble, <_< I am a good role model, and we found a car under a snow bank when my son heard a loud metallic thud as he was climbing it. The snow bank that is. No sign of the car from outside at all. We have too much snow. I am at least going to be kept quite busy for the next week so hopefully I can distract myself from this urge to rent a back hoe! :blink: This will also allow me to pick out some prime winter caches!

Edited March 26, 2011 by MikeAndHike

March 26, 2011

I cached much of the winter here in Western NY despite the snow. I spent much of the time in a fairly horrible park/swamp. The frozen swamp was much easier to navigate and the sub-freezing temperatures kept the mosquitoes at bay. Navigating the area was tough but that was due mostly due to its vast expanse and lack of trail system. Many of the caches were a lot harder to find. I was able to find a couple of them when my boot unexpectedly struck a metallic object. The sound of your foot on an ammo can makes and unmistakable sound. There was plenty of digging. There were DNFs. I only averaged 3 finds a visit but it got me out of the house and I had a blast.

Starting geocaching in the winter is tough. IMO, you need some experience caching to make winter caching successful and fun. There is a learning curve in geocaching. Once you start having some success this spring and summer, it will carry over into winter. Next winter you will have much more success. Good luck and enjoy.

2.2k · March 26, 2011

As the ghost town is also likely barried in snow I will allow it It is Valley Ghost Town not to far from Drumheller AB and about 50km away from where they are hosting Best of the Bad Mega.

Ah, Dorothy. Yeah, awesome little place. I've been going out there for more than 1o years now. If I could ever find my old pre-digital photographs I've got some shots of the churches before they started the restoration. Here's a link to one of my sets from out there when there was no snow: Dorothy

Anyway, to keep on topic -- there are a lot of advantages of caching in the snow. No mosquitos, no mud, fewer muggles.

March 26, 2011

Starting geocaching in the winter is tough. IMO, you need some experience caching to make winter caching successful and fun. There is a learning curve in geocaching. Once you start having some success this spring and summer, it will carry over into winter. Next winter you will have much more success. Good luck and enjoy.

I Think you are right on the mark. I don't really know what I am doing yet. I don't have an experienced eye for where a cache may be hidden. I will be doing a lot of caching this year. I hope to be able to enjoy next winter better.

Anyway, to keep on topic -- there are a lot of advantages of caching in the snow. No mosquitos, no mud, fewer muggles.

Actually as I was looking up Dorothy I came upon a Ghost Lake Island cache that would have been great to grab when I was in Cochrane a few weeks ago. I don't know if I would still be brave enough to walk out now. But that is one advantage to winter, island caches are no longer boat necessary. I would have gotten my first 5*! And amen to the no Mosquitos!

March 26, 2011

Some of my favorite wintertime caches are the ones I snowshoed to and then found up high in a skiers shelter. Look for caches that mention hanging. The first cache I ever found was hanging in a tree.

March 27, 2011

Some of my favorite wintertime caches are the ones I snowshoed to and then found up high in a skiers shelter. Look for caches that mention hanging. The first cache I ever found was hanging in a tree.

That sounds like a blast. Hopefully by next winter I will be a semi-pro finder and ready to take on some challenging winter finds like that.

And in other news, I found a cache today! :grin: I had to run into the next town and had time to try for one cache. So I checked my GSAK database for a recently logged cache in the area. Bingo one found 10 days ago! Snow was deep and my boots got filled but found it I did. Victory!!!!

1k · March 27, 2011

Still going down below freezing at night here, yet today I brought home a tick on my pant leg. Don't they ever die?

March 27, 2011

Started a hike at 2:20 PM today and hiked out a road 2.8 miles to find a bison tube hanging in a tree.

Got back to the car at 5:00 after the 5.6 mile hike. The last half mile below the cache the snow was about 6 inches deep. I'll sleep good tonight.

March 27, 2011

I just started but the biggest thing I'm encountering is lots of rain where I live. That I can handle though. Needless to say I'm ready for summer. I'm loving geocaching as of now!

March 27, 2011

Normally if someone asked about caching in the snow on March 24th, I'd ask "are you in Nunavut"? But I have snow on the ground right now too.

Hey! We've still got piles of snow here in Finland too

On an average, snow melts here (I'm in "south") usually by end of March, and up north mostly before June. Does not look promising this year, though. Average snow depth here is still 16.5 inches, not to mention the North...

38.2k · March 27, 2011

You could have the tease we had!

All our snow melted (all 3ish feet of it), the sun was shining, temperatures were around 9 degrees C. The buds were coming up, the ground was thawing, and then the next day we had a snow storm and got dumped with another foot of brand new snow.

Similar tease here. All the snow melted. I was skiing (man made snow) one day and it was 72 degrees F. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt on the slopes.

Then later that weekend temps dipped and it snowed on 3 consecutive days. A heavy wet snow, but we received 3 inches, 5 the next day and 6 the next.The snow is now a thin layer of white ice.

Some people around (my wife included) here were dumbfounded. They thought spring was here and it was all over. It IS March. Never trust March.

Anyway, I feel for MikeAndHike. It's not easy for long time cachers to find caches under snow, but we do have a huge advantage over novices. We know the kinds of places to look and can usually spot them even under the snow. The tell-tale mound of a boulder or a down tree under the snow is often a huge hint. Of course snowshoes help in deep snow. I needed them a few times this year and this year I also started bringing a folding shovel along. It has been very helpful. Hiking poles are always a good idea as well - something to poke around with (carefully, you don't want to put the end of your pole through a Lock n Lock).

Edited March 27, 2011 by briansnat

But I Don't Want Too.....

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