+Emma_Smith Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Well I decided to give Geocaching a go in a bid to get me and my nearly 3 year old Son out and about on some adventures. I searched near to where I live and there is one at the bottom of our road (0.1 miles to be precise) in a wooded area and it's a micro. So I set off with my HTC HD phone spent about an hour in the woods walking backwards and forwards and what did i find... nothing! My beloved phone decided to fluctuate between how many metres away I was from the cache even when I was standing still and the other weird thing that kept happening was it would say I was about a mile away from where I actually was! I'm not one to give up easily but I can see this hobby driving me insane if my phone can't even get my location right or get me within at least 3m of where I'm aiming for. Do you think it is my phone that is a bit naff or just because I was under a few trees??? Maybe I should look for something a little bigger to begin with but just wanted to find the one nearest to home first lol. Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Here are some general hints: Look for caches with a difficulty of 2 or less for your fist few caches. Stick with regular sized caches for your first few. Micros can be quite hard to find sometimes. Stick to areas you are familiar with. Look for anything out of place or unusual. Look for unusual piles of sticks, grass, leaves, rocks, sand, etc. Feel where you cannot look. Think vertical, not all caches are on the ground. Look up or at eye level. Look for traces of previous searches to zero in on the spot. Think like the hider - where would you put a container in this location? Look for things too new, too old, too perfect, not like the others, too many, too few. Change your perspective - a shift in lighting can sometimes reveal a cache. Keep in mind that many micros are magnetic or attached to something (via string, wire etc). Slowly expand your search area to about 40 feet from where your GPS says ground zero is. Bring garden gloves and a flashlight - they help! Be prepared to not find the cache more often then you think. Most of all - have fun!! Quote Link to comment
+The Blorenges Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Welcome Emma, What StarBrand said is all good advice. We might be able to give some more hints/ideas if you could give us the GC number for the cache you were hunting - It's on the top right corner of the cache page description. MrsB Quote Link to comment
jadenrich2101 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Hi emma...are u from the UK ?? heres a cache that me and my lil boy had abit of difficulty finding! my dad took a pic after wed found it. hes zoomed in and its a pretty hardcore camera hes used! Id suggest going for bigger caches also....my first find took 3 attempts so keep going hun...and ur lil one will love the walking n fresh air! N just to let you no there are some mini walking shoes on the sportsdirect.com website for lil boys that are £8 and there alot better than wellies or normal trainers! Quote Link to comment
+CluelessnLuV Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 (edited) As for your phone - you will not always be able to find a cache right at the posted coordinates. GPS has usually in the best case scenario +/- 9 ft (3 meters) accuracy - and that is on a good day with no clouds and other iterference and over a long period of time. And that's just for the person who hid it. Add your phone having at least +/- 3m accuracy and you're already further from the hide . When cacher placed their cache - their GPS or smartphone accuracy could've been even further off. Just noticed a new cache near us that just had it's coordinates fixed by over 60 ft (18 meters or so). We usually check at least a 10-15 meter radius around the suggested coordinates area if we can't find it any closer. Also, read previous logs for the cache you're trying to find, note any "needs maintenance" posts, comments about it's location or the dates of most recent finds (Not everyone logs their DNFs - "Did Not Find" so the cache might've been muggled and the CO - "Cache Owner" doesn't know of all the failed attempts at finding the cache) Oh, and BTW - Welcome to Our Addiction! Once you find a few nice caches at the really cool spots, you'll know what we mean! Edited July 14, 2011 by CluelessnLuV Quote Link to comment
jadenrich2101 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Agreed Clue...this is very addictive....Come on the uk pages aswell and welcome to the madhouse Quote Link to comment
jadenrich2101 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 MRS B will u be attending the Warrington Event in August this year ??? Would love to meet the famous blorenges Quote Link to comment
+Emma_Smith Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 Thanks guys - yes I'm from the UK (Warrington) and the cache I was trying to find was http://coord.info/GC2QGXJ was marked as a 1.5 difficulty but perhaps it should have been a 5 lol. Have just run a pocket query for medium/large ones nearby so think I'll do a few of those first. Jady I had to look very hard at your picture to spot the cache so I've got no chance in the big wide open world! Funnily enough I had looked at Sports Direct for some proper walking boots for the little un' Hopefully I'll be able to report some success somewhere/anywhere before the weekend Quote Link to comment
jadenrich2101 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Emma ive sent u a email via the geo website...did u get it ?? x Quote Link to comment
+RhinoInAToga Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 How bad is it that I can't see the cache in that picture? Lol I've been staring at it for a few minutes now. This may be why we rack up so many DNFs.. Quote Link to comment
+RhinoInAToga Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 OH! I see it! Wow! That was pretty good Quote Link to comment
+Bear and Ragged Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 How bad is it that I can't see the cache in that picture? Lol I've been staring at it for a few minutes now. This may be why we rack up so many DNFs.. It's SOOOO obvious! Quote Link to comment
jadenrich2101 Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Bear u found it straight away because ur a hardcore geocachers....u have the eye.....Im kinda starting to get the eye for it now after 50+ caches but ive still a long way to go Quote Link to comment
+St.Matthew Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Bear u found it straight away because ur a hardcore geocachers....u have the eye.....Im kinda starting to get the eye for it now after 50+ caches but ive still a long way to go I think the geocaching "eye" or "geosense" can always get better with experience. I'm still a geo-toddler at 250-ish finds, but I didn't feel I had a good geosense until around cache 150-ish. Quote Link to comment
+Emma_Smith Posted July 15, 2011 Author Share Posted July 15, 2011 So I took on board your advice and went for something larger and today I...... found my 1st ever cache (GC2X518 blackcap) :D I was so excited and can see how this is easily going to turn into an addiction. Will definitely stick to the larger ones for a while until I get the "Geocaching eye" lol. Quote Link to comment
+FloridaFour Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Emma, LOL, I just checked to see if you had been successful finding your first cache yet... and noted you are from Warrington, which is where my sister-in-law is from. Pretty funny, since we live in Florida. Geocaching certainly "meet up" with people from all over. FloridaFour Quote Link to comment
+A & J Tooling Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Great work! You're up to 4 in two days. You are addicted. Welcome to the club. Quote Link to comment
AA-AdventureGuy Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 Yah micros drive me crazy sometimes! Don't give up though! Quote Link to comment
+popokiiti Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 Averted vision helps too - sometimes you can look straight at something and not see it, but out of the corner of your eye....voila! A cache. When you get to the general area, put away whatever unit is guiding you, and look, and think "where would I hide it?" Quote Link to comment
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