Bad luck with caching

[Into the Sky]

Hi,

 

I went geocaching today with a friend and it was pretty unsuccessful. We looked for seven different caches and couldn't find a single one! We're in a well populated area, so I don't know what is the problem.

 

We are new geocachers, and other than an event we went to where they explained geocaching, we had never done it before. I'm pretty sure because of this we could've found one or two, but I don't know what happened with the rest.

 

I was thinking maybe it was the app I downloaded. It was the Geocaching Intro. Once as we got around the area it told us we were three feet away, then nine, and etc. Another time we went back and forth across the street because the compass was going in different places. The coordinates must've been right under the bridge we were standing on!

 

Please help. I got very disappointed when spending my whole day geocaching and then finding nothing.

[+ocklawahaboy]

I haven't had any luck with anything but the paid official app, although you will get widely varying opinions on that. There are days when the phones aren't worth a toot and other days they get you within 5 feet every time. All I can tell you is to keep trying. Perhaps find an experienced cacher to go out with next time. I've been at it a couple of years but I still do way better with someone more experienced.

 

If I were you, I'd make my next cache a gimmie. Pick a Wally world lamp post cache. Research it online first so you can know exactly which lamp it's on before you get there. Then when you go, you can see how the app and the simulated compas relates to where it actually is. Once you sign the gimme, work up from there.

 

My two cents

[+jellis]

Even with a good GPS it doesn't mean when you are at 1ft that the cache is. Search the area first within 20ft and in case the coords are slightly off expand. Geosense also helps. If you were to hide something where would you put it. Check the size or any hints supplied.

Edited April 1, 2012 by jellis

[+Scubasonic]

What are you using to look for the caches GPS? Smartphone? You might try looking for the larger Caches with and early rating to start out Difficulty 1.5 Terrain 1.5 this will build your confidence for future finds

Edited April 1, 2012 by Scubasonic

[+ohmelli]

I'm only 43 caches into this game - but I highly recommend tagging along with an experienced cacher! I do really well - but there are some that I just know I am NEVER going to find without some help!

[+MI_CO]

When I first started, I wasn't very successful until I understood cache sizes and what the most common containers are. My first cache I found was an ammo can, so I was looking for that size container for all my caches! Living in an urban area, most caches were micros! I quickly found out that size does matter!

 

Hooking up with an experienced cacher that can show you the ropes will definitely help. Most areas have a once a month Meet-n-Greet you can attend to meet seasoned geocachers and most will be more than willing to help you. Another way to learn is to use the internet. There are thousands of blogs and videos that will show you what to look for, what the most common containers are according to size, and the most common hiding spots. Not sure about other states, but in my home state, a lot of Park and Rec departments had a Geocaching 101 class. The class is usually a few hours long and you will learn the basics followed by a group outing to practice what you learned.

[+Davequal]

I'm only 43 caches into this game - but I highly recommend tagging along with an experienced cacher! I do really well - but there are some that I just know I am NEVER going to find without some help!

 

Very good advise.

 

I am the experienced cacher in my group and I only have ~260.....

 

 

[+DragonsWest]

4,900+ caches here and had a pretty poor day - largely due to evil hides. These are rapidly becoming my least favorite pastime. So many locations can accommodate larger hides, but blinkies or those little plastic tube things are all the rage. Really rather be hunting larger caches.

[+OZ2CPU]

I got 1k, and a friend got 4k found so far,

we teamed up yesterday and also got tottally stuck at one darn cache,

it was only rated 2/2 and the worst of all was someone else we know found it, a few hrs before that very same day,

so we hardcore deep searched the entire area for 45 mins, before we gave up and called them :-)

oh man was it really that easy !! oh yes it really was ..

the point is, not matter how many you have allready seen, you can always get surpriced

and you can always just be plain unlucky !

just dont expect to find them all :-)

and try to have a much fun on a DNF, as you do when you find it..

But I must say I also tried not that long ago actually to start (ruin) a good cache day

with 4 DNF in a row, man I was depressed... but then the next 4 I found, wow great..

if yougo out and DNF 7 in a row.. it sound like you are doing something wrong ?

or seek too hard stuff ? how are they rated ?

any previous logs about people did not find them ?

a trick is to only gofo caches with last log as a find,

and dont seek caches with NA or NM flag, and go for 2/2 as max rating,

atleast in the beginning, when you find 7 in a row, and feel maybe you need a bit more challenge ?

rate one up pt week or month, and lets see if you get what you seek :-)

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Herein may well be the problem...

We're in a well populated area, so I don't know what is the problem.

 

"Well populated areas" themselves are not the problem, but placing things other than micro-caches in cities and other "well populated areas" can be. I am guessing that you may have been looking for micro-caches. You didn't say, so it is difficult to tell, for sure.

 

Plan your geo-outing with reading and making notes from the local cache list. Being new and not fully aware yet of what caches can be (or look like), stick with larger ones. Small or medium -- large if you can find one on the list -- as micros can be real buggers, especially for beginners. Some micros are the size of your little fingernail!

 

In your planning, also pay attention to the Difficulty rating. If you can, initially stick with finding caches with a rating of one to two stars.

 

Further, READ THE LOGS. There will be clues within, or ideas about how easy/difficult the last few "finds" were.

 

Most likely the problem is not your GPSr device. It is your lack of experience/knowledge in using it, or understanding just what it is doing. When it says you are close -- put it away, 'cuz it has done what it is gonna do. Keep your eyes looking for the cache (or its' hiding spot, really). Simply put, if you are looking at the device in your hand, you ain't lookin' for the cache. Generally, the device will put you within 20' or so of the coordinates. At times it may do better, but don't plan on it.

 

One further little hint: Don't keep your eyes on the ground.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Gitchee-Gummee

[Into the Sky]

Thanks so much for all of the help, guys! Yeah, I guess it was really my experience instead of the device. A few we didn't find because we didn't know they were placed a long time ago-- the latest one was 2007!-- and a lot of them were micros/smalls also.

[+Bear and Ragged]

Thanks so much for all of the help, guys! Yeah, I guess it was really my experience instead of the device. A few we didn't find because we didn't know they were placed a long time ago-- the latest one was 2007!-- and a lot of them were micros/smalls also.

How long ago a cache was placed has nothing to do with not being able to find it.

There are a lot of caches placed in 2000 that are still being found on a regular basis!

 

Best to check when it was last found, doesn't mean it IS missing, just that it may be a more difficult one to find! At least if it's been found in the last week or so, there is a good chance it's still there.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Bear and Ragged

[+SwineFlew]

I see that you cant find this cache. http://coord.info/GC31DWM

 

You should be able to find it.

 

If you are using an iphone or a smartphone, you will need to search a wider area.

[+hikerT]

Don't rely on the GPS too much. Once you get close, put it away and look for spots that could hide a cache, depending on size. I find urban caches harder to find due to the small size and satellite interruption from tall buildings. Go to parks or the forest and look for regular sized containers. They will usually be in a stump or under an unnatural pile of sticks or rocks (UPS or UPR). Get to know what camo/covering looks like, then slowly increase your difficulty as you have more finds and less DNF's. I have over 12,000 finds and still DNF 1/1's.

[+DragonsWest]

I had The Story From Heck a few years ago, up near Yosemite.

 

There was a cache called something like Ranger Matty Memorial, which I spent a couple hours trying to get to GZ before finally locating the way in. A parking waypoint would have saved enormous time, but that wasn't all. When I finally got to where GZ said the cache was I was standing in the middle of a dry riverbed, looking around and realizing during the Spring thaw this would be a torrent, where even boulders would be gracefully nudged along, so no container could survive anywhere near these coords.

 

Disgustipated I returned home, to find in other logs that the CO was about 175 feet off. D'oh! Well, he had to be. Now I have this spiffy Paperless Caching ability with my current GPSr I can read a past few logs to see what's up. Back then I was running around with a GSP MAP 60c, which had no such capacity.

 

... I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

 

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

[+slukster]

I see that you cant find this cache. http://coord.info/GC31DWM

 

You should be able to find it.

 

If you are using an iphone or a smartphone, you will need to search a wider area.

If you look at the logs on the cache page you will see someone posted a picture of the cache container.

 

Maybe this picture can help you find it.

[+slukster]

duplicate

Edited April 5, 2012 by slukster