+goalie003 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 (edited) My son and I have been caching for less than a year and have 855 finds and 10 hides so far. We like to travel to different cities/areas within an hour of home to get a variety of finds from the varied hiders. The burning question I have is how many finds do you make before you get to a point where you are rarely, if ever, stumped? Or, has anyone got to that point? Edited April 7, 2011 by goalie003 Quote Link to comment
+Too Tall John Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Hopefully never. The day that geocaching becomes too easy to never stump me or to bland to never surprise me is the day I give it up. Quote Link to comment
+dfx Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 3000+ finds here and just got stumped today. Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Well, it does take more to stump me these days, but I still get stumped. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I still get stumped - a lot. Quote Link to comment
+Lil Devil Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Well over 10K finds here and I still have my share of DNFs. I even still find some cache containers or hide styles I haven't seen before, but that's much more rare than a DNF. Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Hasn't happened yet. I still log 1 DNF for every 6 finds or so. Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Around 3-4K finds, you begin to home-in on the more likely locations. Sometime this pre-conception is NOT to your advantage! Just when you think you have got it all figured out, a newbee comes along (with a fresh idea) and throws some grease under your wheels. This is the main reason I am completely against requiring a certain number of finds before cachers are allowed to hide...I certainly don't want them putting out the 'same old cache like the one I found last week'. Quote Link to comment
+Team Dennis Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I'm currently at 1291. Find #1291 was a really well done cache that took 25 minutes of searching before I buckled and used a PAF for a hint. So I guess for me it's still ongoing. Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I think it's a percentage factor that you will never reach zero. If you are in an empty field with just a chain-link fence...(Edited for spoiler content)...afterwards you reduced the surprise factor by about 5%. The next time you find yourself in the same situation, there's no surprise, just one more place to look. A new twist is one reason while you'll never reach zero, but also the simple satisfaction of having your experience pay off, is also a surprise. And a pleasant one at that. Quote Link to comment
+tozainamboku Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I still get surprised when I find an LPC. Today I found one that was a nano hidden in a giant plastic cockroach. You should have seen me jump when it fell out as I lifted the skirt. Quote Link to comment
+RebelTJ Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I still get surprised when I find an LPC. Today I found one that was a nano hidden in a giant plastic cockroach. You should have seen me jump when it fell out as I lifted the skirt. ROFL!!! Thanks for making my night with a mental visualization of that!!! Quote Link to comment
+ngrrfan Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 My son and I have been caching for less than a year and have 855 finds and 10 hides so far. We like to travel to different cities/areas within an hour of home to get a variety of finds from the varied hiders. The burning question I have is how many finds do you make before you get to a point where you are rarely, if ever, stumped? Or, has anyone got to that point? The day you think you've reached the point that you can find anything.... you need to look for this one: GC2QGJG, Log Your DNFs Please There are three of us with a combined total of over 5,000 finds working on looking for this. Quote Link to comment
+DanOCan Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 The burning question I have is how many finds do you make before you get to a point where you are rarely, if ever, stumped? Or, has anyone got to that point? More than 3000 Finds over the last seven years and I still maintain a Find:DNF ration of 7:1. Sometimes I DNF the simplest of caches and then come back a second time and wonder "How could I possibly miss that???" Quote Link to comment
+goalie003 Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 Thanks to all of you who replied. One part of me would like to be the guy who can walk up to a 4/? cache and say, "From my experience, it has to be this kind of container and hidden there," but most of me is happy to know that is an impossibility. Quote Link to comment
+nittanycopa Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I'm finding I get even more joy now solving puzzles. Cache aside, some of these are tricky enough to keep me busy for a good couple hours! Quote Link to comment
+humboldt flier Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 The beauty of this zany activity is that there is always something new. Got to love how this simple game can keep you on your toes. Quote Link to comment
+humboldt flier Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 The beauty of this zany activity is that there is always something new. Got to love how this simple game can keep you on your toes. Quote Link to comment
+the4dirtydogs Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 If your not surprised anymore then I think it's time to go fishing. I get surprised all the time. Sometimes I'm surprised by a big mountain of trash that the cache is stuck in. Or how about the surprise of finding 2000 rocks to flip over before you find that film can. I DNF'd a cache twice, back to back days. On the third day I was SURPRISED to find the cache just laying in the weeds I couldn't believe it. Maybe I'm just easily surprised. Quote Link to comment
+bflentje Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Approaching 5000 here and got stumped yesterday. It was a 2 star cache too.. another improperly rated cache. Go figure. Quote Link to comment
+newlite Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 My son and I have been caching for less than a year and have 855 finds and 10 hides so far. We like to travel to different cities/areas within an hour of home to get a variety of finds from the varied hiders. The burning question I have is how many finds do you make before you get to a point where you are rarely, if ever, stumped? Or, has anyone got to that point? The day you think you've reached the point that you can find anything.... you need to look for this one: GC2QGJG, Log Your DNFs Please There are three of us with a combined total of over 5,000 finds working on looking for this. I really want to plan a trip down there now and try it. I'm sure I'd fail terribly with my 124 finds. But maybe that would actually be my greatest strength? Quote Link to comment
+popokiiti Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 I still get surprised when I find an LPC. Today I found one that was a nano hidden in a giant plastic cockroach. You should have seen me jump when it fell out as I lifted the skirt. I can relate to that - bison in a big plastic and slightly hairy bug - reminiscent of those yucky June bugs. I shuddered when I found that on the back side of a tree, at my eye level and staring at me. The noise I made was met with "did ya find it?" not "are you OK!" Quote Link to comment
+ngrrfan Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 My son and I have been caching for less than a year and have 855 finds and 10 hides so far. We like to travel to different cities/areas within an hour of home to get a variety of finds from the varied hiders. The burning question I have is how many finds do you make before you get to a point where you are rarely, if ever, stumped? Or, has anyone got to that point? The day you think you've reached the point that you can find anything.... you need to look for this one: GC2QGJG, Log Your DNFs Please There are three of us with a combined total of over 5,000 finds working on looking for this. I really want to plan a trip down there now and try it. I'm sure I'd fail terribly with my 124 finds. But maybe that would actually be my greatest strength? Sometimes it is the fresh view of someone with a low find number that spots the cache right off. Each find is a learning experience, regardless of how may finds one may have. Sure a more experienced cacher may have an idea of where to look first, but I've seen a couple of very experienced cachers go "down the primrose path" because the cache wasn't hid in the logical spot. Quote Link to comment
+dfx Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 I really want to plan a trip down there now and try it. I'm sure I'd fail terribly with my 124 finds. But maybe that would actually be my greatest strength? Try http://coord.info/GC1764C instead. Quote Link to comment
+edscott Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 I think it's a percentage factor that you will never reach zero. If you are in an empty field with just a chain-link fence...(Edited for spoiler content)...afterwards you reduced the surprise factor by about 5%. The next time you find yourself in the same situation, there's no surprise, just one more place to look. A new twist is one reason while you'll never reach zero, but also the simple satisfaction of having your experience pay off, is also a surprise. And a pleasant one at that. Yes, My DNF rate still hovers around 10% ... currently it is at 9.36, but I did a bunch of easy caches over the past couple months. Only DNFs were actually MIAs. Summer will send it back up. Quote Link to comment
+narcissa Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 I have more than 1500 finds, but I am still surprised from time to time. Quote Link to comment
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