My first adventure

[duhon098]

I stumbled across geocaching last friday. I started doing research on it. The next day me and my cousin went out in our area on our first adventure to find caches. We had no clue what we were looking for, but we ended up in some awesome places. My cousin being big in the whole picture taking thing loved it even though we searched out 5 that day and didnt find not one. The next day, the same thing. We went to the same places and looked but nothing. That sunday we went back to one that was called sea crest and we found our first cache. I kicked myself over and over because it was right there the whole time. The whole point is, even though we set out on these long hikes and wild goose chases we love doing this. We see things that we have never seen before. Today we went to a park in search of one and what we found was a turtle laying eggs. I have a picture but dont know how to upload it yet.. lol sorry. We did find alot of snakes to, but we ran to fast to take pics. Now i'm not saying on these other trips we didnt look hard enough to find these geocaches,maybe alittle to hard, but we couldnt seem to find them. Whats the best advice you can give on finding them? I have looked at the geocachers u website and read the forums like crazy, even watched youtube videos but cant seem to find these..

[+briansnat]

I think you have succeeded at geocaching already. For many of us it's not about the find itself, but where the caches bring us.

 

That said, one chief errors made by novices is concentrating their search right where the GPS says the cache is. With the inaccuracy of your unit combined with the inaccuracy of the cache hider's unit, the cache can be 30, 40 or 50+ feet from where your GPS says it is.

 

So if you don't find it right away where your GPS is pointing, expand your search area. Pay less attention to the GPS and think about where you would hide something in that area if you were to do so.

Edited May 3, 2011 by briansnat

[+Jayman11]

Welcome to the fun!

[+Lieblweb]

I stumbled across geocaching last friday. I started doing research on it. The next day me and my cousin went out in our area on our first adventure to find caches. We had no clue what we were looking for, but we ended up in some awesome places. My cousin being big in the whole picture taking thing loved it even though we searched out 5 that day and didnt find not one. The next day, the same thing. We went to the same places and looked but nothing. That sunday we went back to one that was called sea crest and we found our first cache. I kicked myself over and over because it was right there the whole time. The whole point is, even though we set out on these long hikes and wild goose chases we love doing this. We see things that we have never seen before. Today we went to a park in search of one and what we found was a turtle laying eggs. I have a picture but dont know how to upload it yet.. lol sorry. We did find alot of snakes to, but we ran to fast to take pics. Now i'm not saying on these other trips we didnt look hard enough to find these geocaches,maybe alittle to hard, but we couldnt seem to find them. Whats the best advice you can give on finding them? I have looked at the geocachers u website and read the forums like crazy, even watched youtube videos but cant seem to find these..

 

Are you reading the cache discriptions and past log notes? Sometimes those can give hints. Not that you want to give yourself hints, but if you're struggling to find them.... USE the hints!! After a while of not finding any, you will get bored and not enjoy it anymore.

 

Eventually, you'll develope a 'cache sense' and things will start to jump out at you as being obvious.

 

But I'll agree - there are things a mile from my house that I didn't know existed. Makes you get out there and enjoy your surroundings!! My husband and I went to look for a cache out on a deserted roadway - and I'll never forget - there were 5 tiny kittens that appeared like someone dumped them there. OMG, I could've cried....they were following us everywhere!! We had to abort the mission and call ORCA. I'm allergic to cats!! I was sad...very sad.

Edited May 3, 2011 by Lieblweb

[+niraD]

A common recommendation for beginners is to stick with small size, regular size, and large size caches. Until you're more experienced, avoid micro size caches, some of which are smaller than most beginners can imagine (sometimes called "nanos"). Save those for later, after you have some experience.

 

Also, stick with caches that have a difficulty rating of no more than 2 stars . Save the more difficult ones for later. You may also want to choose caches with easy terrain ratings. (The difficulty rating tells you how hard it is to find the cache once you get there. The terrain rating tells you how hard it is to get there.) And it is often best to start with traditional , rather than multi-caches or puzzle/mystery caches or other cache types.

 

Under ideal conditions, a consumer GPSr will be accurate to about 3m (10'). That applies both to your GPSr, and to the GPSr of the cache owner, so you may find the container 15-20' from ground zero under ideal conditions. Under less than ideal conditions, both GPSr readings can be much less accurate.

 

It might help to look at some of the cache containers available online. For example, check out the cache containers sold by Groundspeak. Also, take a look at the Pictures - Cool Cache Containers (CCC's) thread in the forums.

[+Mark+Karen]

The thing you eventually learn is that with the exception of magnetic caches you are very rarely looking directly for the cache itself, you are looking for the item which is hiding the cache location. Quite often a nicely placed rock or pile of sticks. For a geocacher it sticks out like a bright shining beacon, for a muggle it doesn't look like anything!

 

I too am still guilty - even after a year of getting to zero metres on the GPS and going "well where is it?!"

[+popokiiti]

Welcome! Keep your eyes peeled for grass that may be stomped down, a pile of bark that doesn't look natural and the best advice we were even given, think "where would I hide it?" We become detectives of sorts once we arrive at GZ!

You have already experienced the joy of the journey - make sure you include the tale of the turtle in your log!

[+AlohaBra and MaksMom]

Welcome also...be prepared to get dirty...

My friend dprovan just got 1100 cache finds in his first year! I was not close here.