Talk about your failures

1.4k · April 9, 2012

We've all had good times caching. A memorable day, a record setting PT run, or finding the perfect spot for a perfect cache by accident. What about the other side of the coin? Lets share our failure days/puzzles/hides.... whatever.

I'm really hoping this thread doesn't turn into any sort of negative attack thread, please lets just keep it to our own (or our groups) failure days, and lets keep it fun.

Over the last several days, I've been planning a trip for today. Trying to figure out where to go, find somebody to go with me, figure out which caches, etc...

I decided on Bodega Bay, CA. 15-20 caches planned, two of which are some of the oldest in California. My son and I were going to spend a special day at the ocean, caching, and just relaxing. That was before I was up all night with stuff flying out of both ends of me like I was Linda Blair. Very, very uncool.

Your turn....

18.9k · April 9, 2012

I once set out to try for 15 FTF one night.

I got 8 DNFs and was STF on 3 others.

I ripped my coat - it started raining about half way through. I lost a pen. Broke my flashlight.

It cured me of being a FTF hound. Back in 2005.

April 9, 2012

Our embarassing First-To-Did-Not-Find log: Elfish Has Left Building

It would have been very cool if we had managed it. A late-night hike, a giddy hour uphill to GZ that would have guaranteed us our first ever FTF. No luck! I, too, am cured - especially of hiking at night. I'll save the midnight hours for those pesky urban hides. :lol:

19k · April 9, 2012

I was so proud of my very first cache... an over-ambitious 3-stage multi. I had transposed the numbers for the 2nd stage, and sent the first attempters 1/2 mile away. Also hid all three physical stages of an ambitious multi-cache, only to find after submitting it that one of the stages was too close to another cache. It was not the sort of cache where stages could be moved. I also fat-fingered the coords on a single-stage hide of mine once and sent the FTF'er on a wild goose chase, but he managed to brute-force the cache anyhow. It helped that the park was long and narrow and had a limited number of places to put a cache.

1.4k · April 9, 2012

There was a new cache published during the middle of the week when I'm off of work. Although not a FTF hound, I'll go look for a new cache if I have the time. I broke the cache. It was primarily because of the design of the cache, which was attached to the underside of the handrail with an earth-magnet. The magnet was glued on the outside of the container (half of a contact lense case) and the magnetic bond was stronger than the bond of the glue to the container. Pulled it right off.

Luckily, the CO is very responsive and responsible and met me at GZ later in the day with a replacement container made and ready.

But I broke a cache as the FTF. Huzzah.

1.1k · April 9, 2012

Yesterday was a failure as I didn't go caching.

Otherwise I went looking for a FTF but only found the string it was susposed to be hanging from! It had been muggled before it was found. :blink:

April 9, 2012

Epic Failure

Flew out to Freiburg, Germany on a business trip. On the day I landed, I decided to take the free time to go hiking. I had 4 caches to go for.

#1 in a Church - very high muggle activity (knew that going in), no find. I SHOULD have asked the person collecting the fees where it was (after everyone left), but I didn't. Failure #1

#2 in the woods - went hiking up the mountain. Headed to find the caches. Trail map was off. Got near the first ground zero, searched, but didn't find. It was there, I was just too tired from hiking a few miles and it was getting late and I was hungry. Failure #2

#3 in the woods - same hiking paths. The second cache I was going for turned out to be way to far to go since I spent a bit of time looking for #2. Got a little lost in the woods, luckily, I tracked my path so I could find the way back. Failure #3

#4 in a statue - The goal here was an easy find (I got a badge for it) but with the main goal to leave my first TB there to make it back home. It, as well as others, were taken within the next day or two. Cache left there for future finds (still there today), but the TBs were snatched. Logged a find, but lost a TB. Failure #4.

15.3k · April 9, 2012

Well, one vacation, I DNFed an on-site puzzle cache after spending an hour or so finding the ammo can and then trying to figure out how to unlock it. Back in the area a year later, I had the "Aha!" moment almost immediately (although it felt like a "Duh!" moment at the time). When I got back to the car, the battery was dead, so we spent the afternoon waiting for the charging system to be fixed instead of doing the things we had originally planned.

And there was a beautifully camouflaged cache that I couldn't figure out how to open. It turned out that the wood used to construct the camouflage had expanded from the moisture, so it took a bit more force to open it than I had been using initially. I finally got it open, but then the whole thing fell into pieces when I tried to re-hide the cache. Without the camouflage, there was nowhere to hide the cache, so I had to take it with me. I immediately used my phone to post a NM log and to send the CO email explaining what had happened in detail.

3.4k · April 9, 2012

Let's see...

Tore expensive training pants on a piece of steel wire, while finding an otherwise fun cache.

Had my GPSr drop everyting but a couple caches manually entered that morning (since remedied and learned to avoid.)

Trapped for half hour in a Wally World lot trying to replace an LPC (which is one reason I drive past most of these now.)

Epic fail of a hider near Yosemite, who was off by 175 feet (cache is since archived) Spent a couple hours trying to find it.

All things considered, far more successes and a huge amount of fun.

19k · April 9, 2012

Let's see...

Tore expensive training pants on a piece of steel wire,

Training pants? You must have started YOUNG!

3.4k · April 9, 2012

Let's see...

Tore expensive training pants on a piece of steel wire,

Training pants? You must have started YOUNG!

Pooey from me to you!

I guess another name for them is 'Warm-up' They are some end-of-season sale of equipment from an English Permier League Football club. I usually don't wear them out caching for this very reason. A bit of tuition for the school of hard knocks - Don't wear good clothing when geocaching. Even reaching for that desireable magnetic key holder under a park bench could result in mud/grass staining your slacks while you take a break from a conference.

We could probably create a separate thread here - name the clothing you have damaged/destroyed in the pursuit of a find.

1.4k · April 9, 2012

Let's see...

Tore expensive training pants on a piece of steel wire,

Training pants? You must have started YOUNG!

Pooey from me to you!

I guess another name for them is 'Warm-up' They are some end-of-season sale of equipment from an English Permier League Football club. I usually don't wear them out caching for this very reason. A bit of tuition for the school of hard knocks - Don't wear good clothing when geocaching. Even reaching for that desireable magnetic key holder under a park bench could result in mud/grass staining your slacks while you take a break from a conference.

We could probably create a separate thread here - name the clothing you have damaged/destroyed in the pursuit of a find.

And it seems you did just that. Bravo

I intended this to be a fun thread. I always enjoy a little chuckle at myself and my failures/mistakes/whatever, just figured others might too.

3.7k · April 9, 2012

There's one cache I've DNFd 3 times. Still haven't found it and I feel like I've searched a wide area with a fine toothed comb. And it's a good-sized container.

Total newbs have walked straight to it and found it right away. One newb even emailed me to give me a hint (which didn't help, BTW). How frustrating/embarassing!

Edited April 9, 2012 by The_Incredibles_

April 9, 2012

There's one cache I've DNFd 3 times. Still haven't found it and I feel like I've searched a wide area with a fine toothed comb. And it's a good-sized container.

Total newbs have walked straight to it and found it right away. One newb even emailed me to give me a hint (which didn't help, BTW). How frustrating/embarassing!

I've had those moments too, I hate when your sure you've checked every possible spot numerous times on separate occasions and someone with a couple finds finds it right away! It's frustrating but I laugh at the same time because there's no sense getting mad over a good hide. There's one cache near my cabin that I've been to a few times and still no find, this summer im GOING to find it I tell you!

3.7k · April 10, 2012

There's one cache near my cabin that I've been to a few times and still no find, this summer im GOING to find it I tell you!

Ever considered bringing a large machine in? :laughing:

1.1k · April 10, 2012

I am happy this thread is about MY failures, not others :-)

My failures :

running out of battery, on all electrical devices I did carry in a new contry and new location !

dont bring water.

dont bring stuff to eat.

did not think area was hard or hike that long.

forgot pen.

forgot to update gps with correct PQ and forgot to check before on the trip.

forgot to check hide/hint was changed, resulting in endless search the wrong place

forgot to check DNF and cache was gone, those are hard to find I tell you !

forgot to double check spoiler pictures of hard to find caches when hide location was changed

and old spoilers was not removed !! man now it is impossible to find stuff, when focused on wrong location.

forgot to bring spare paper when log is repported to be a bit wet.

April 10, 2012

When I first started, my first 3/4 caches, I didn't realize GZ could be off by 30ft and logged a bunch of DNF's because I searched that exact spot with no luck :lol:

Got them now though.

April 10, 2012

I was afraid I would have to bring this up... I was placing a really neat hide, a rock with a hole in it and a small container in it. Really good cache, as it looked like every other rock in Arizona, on Saddle Mountain. I stopped and retrieved a cache I had hid too close to another, had to move it 51 feet... (No, I can't make an exception, if I did it for you, I would have to do it for everyone else.. note from reviewer)

So, I set my rock down with the container in it, was looking at the GPS to move the 51', and after about 40 feet, where's my rock?, took me an hour to find it. Swore to myself I wouldn't say anything to anybody, but since we are baring it all here....

April 10, 2012

We have a Cryptex fairly close to our house. The major part of the hike is a bushwack. We found the container twice with no problem (except for ticks) but, we can't get the thing open! All the logs say after looking at it for a few minutes it just came to us. We've spent over an hour between the two trips and have no idea how to open it. It makes one feel pretty stupid!

1.4k · April 10, 2012

I was afraid I would have to bring this up... I was placing a really neat hide, a rock with a hole in it and a small container in it. Really good cache, as it looked like every other rock in Arizona, on Saddle Mountain. I stopped and retrieved a cache I had hid too close to another, had to move it 51 feet... (No, I can't make an exception, if I did it for you, I would have to do it for everyone else.. note from reviewer)

So, I set my rock down with the container in it, was looking at the GPS to move the 51', and after about 40 feet, where's my rock?, took me an hour to find it. Swore to myself I wouldn't say anything to anybody, but since we are baring it all here....

Bahahahahahaha, I love this one!

I did something similar-ish once. I had a cache that was logged as NM as the area had some changes. I didn't figure it had moved, but I was in the area so I went to check on it. DNF'd my own cache. The next day it was found by somebody else, right where I had left it. I felt silly, but as I hadn't logged anything on the site yet, I just cleared the flag and let it go....

3.4k · April 10, 2012

I was afraid I would have to bring this up... I was placing a really neat hide, a rock with a hole in it and a small container in it. Really good cache, as it looked like every other rock in Arizona, on Saddle Mountain. I stopped and retrieved a cache I had hid too close to another, had to move it 51 feet... (No, I can't make an exception, if I did it for you, I would have to do it for everyone else.. note from reviewer)

So, I set my rock down with the container in it, was looking at the GPS to move the 51', and after about 40 feet, where's my rock?, took me an hour to find it. Swore to myself I wouldn't say anything to anybody, but since we are baring it all here....

Bahahahahahaha, I love this one!

I did something similar-ish once. I had a cache that was logged as NM as the area had some changes. I didn't figure it had moved, but I was in the area so I went to check on it. DNF'd my own cache. The next day it was found by somebody else, right where I had left it. I felt silly, but as I hadn't logged anything on the site yet, I just cleared the flag and let it go....

Two of these, myself.

One I finally did locate the original, after a report there were two containers at GZ.

The other is about 20 miles away and regularly alternates between the original container and the replacement. I still have no idea where the dang original is, but someone clearly moved it.

April 10, 2012

My job has 6 caches within a quarter mile of it, and I have yet to find ONE. I'm there 40+ hours a week, and just stare out the back of the building into the woods.....rrrrr......I know they're there because of the logs...everybody else is finding them but me....so far...

April 10, 2012

Here is the log from my most memorable failure while caching:

slukster found Haunted New York - 567 Hudson St
Saturday, 19 December 2009New York

Out caching on a cold, windy, 20+ degree day. This cache was one of six I had planned on grabbing before meeting up with some friends at my favorite watering hole "Down the Hatch" on W. 4th St. I was running late meeting up so I decided to leave this one for after the 1pm - 6pm all you can drink and eat (chicken wings) special. This was a major mistake. By the time I got out it was even colder than when I got into town and the snow was a blowing. Not to mention I couldn't walk a straight line anymore so I was unsure if my geosenses would be working. Even now the clue still doesn't make sense to me but that might be the impending hang-over talking. So after searching for around 20 minutes I somehow found the cache. Yipeeee!! So I went over to the doorway of one of the buildings to get out of the snow to sign the log. Did I mention I hate nano's? Getting the log out usually isn't a problem but getting it back in is always tough. So after several attempts and a couple of drops of the container I finally got the log back in. A quick return to its excellent hiding spot and homeward bound I go. But I had problems getting it to stick back where it belonged. And after the second attempt the container fell to the ground, into the snow!! Oh ....!!! I started looking everywhere on the floor but I could not find the tiny container! Did I mention I hate nano's? I was looking for 10 minutes when I looked over my shoulder to find the waiter and some customers from the restaurant right by GZ looking at this crazy white guy searching in the snow for what? I shrugged my shoulders at them and continued my search. Finally the waiter came out and gave me a flashlight to help look. When he asked me what I was looking for I mentioned geocaching and he said he had heard of it. After another 10 minutes a patron came out with his flashlight to help me search for the stinkin' thing. Finally after 25+minutes of seaching in the freezing cold I had to give up to catch my train home. I stopped in the White Horse Tavern to use the bathroom on the way out. Nice place!!

team pelagori, forgive me for having lost your cache. It is out there somewhere. I will contact you to arrange getting you a new container. In the mean time, I have learned a valuable lesson. Go caching BEFORE making my way to Down the Hatch.

***THE CACHE IS LOST***

April 10, 2012

I didn't think I had anything to add to this thread, but here goes:

Found it

01/07/2012This cache ended up being a bit more of an adventure for me than I had anticipated. This cache is VERY close to the exceedingly nice Hobs Park Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is amazingly nice - it is new, modern, it has interestng exhibits and programs, and the staff is awesome. They have trail maps and geocaching information available in the visitor center, and the stff there is friendly and VERY happy to discuss geocaching - this has to be the most geocaching friendly park I've ever visited.

After picking up some trail maps, we decided to start with this cache, hey, it's RIGHT HERE, and may as well try to warm up a bit before trying some of the ones with longer hikes. Well, I'm glad I started with this one, because we hike over to ground zero, and I more or less just collapse. My vision goes blurry, I am nauseated, and I almost pass out - I felt like I'd been hit by a truck! I'd thought I was having an attack of hypoglycemia, so my wife walks back over to the visitor center, and one of the staff gives her a bottle of pepsi. She brings it back, I drink it and feel somewhat better (I can at least see again.) My wife finds the cache, we sign the log, and I go back to the visitor center for a while to rest up. (The staff at the visitor center was just incredibly kind during all of this.)

The cache itself is cleverly camo'd to blend in with the surroundings. It is nicely maintained, and had nice stuff in it, although I didn't trade anything. I considered taking the travel bug to Oklahoma, but I was doing pretty well to get myself back to the visitor center by that point!

I'll definitely return to find the other caches in this park - I'd definitely like to get further than about 600' from the visitor center!

Edit: added a favorite point to this cache because the staff are so awesome!

I ended up in the emergency room that night with very low blood pressure, severely dehydrated, and overwhelmingly nauseated. As best we can tell, I succumbed to some type of local virus that had been going around. The onset of this thing was the fastet I've ever experienced - I literally couldn't have been affected any faster if someone had hit me in the gut with a baseball bat.

This ended up being the only cache I found that weekend. I had big plans to cache in that park, and around Eureka Springs.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Mr.Benchmark

1.4k · April 10, 2012

Here is the log from my most memorable failure while caching:

slukster found Haunted New York - 567 Hudson St
Saturday, 19 December 2009New York

Out caching on a cold, windy, 20+ degree day. This cache was one of six I had planned on grabbing before meeting up with some friends at my favorite watering hole "Down the Hatch" on W. 4th St. I was running late meeting up so I decided to leave this one for after the 1pm - 6pm all you can drink and eat (chicken wings) special. This was a major mistake. By the time I got out it was even colder than when I got into town and the snow was a blowing. Not to mention I couldn't walk a straight line anymore so I was unsure if my geosenses would be working. Even now the clue still doesn't make sense to me but that might be the impending hang-over talking. So after searching for around 20 minutes I somehow found the cache. Yipeeee!! So I went over to the doorway of one of the buildings to get out of the snow to sign the log. Did I mention I hate nano's? Getting the log out usually isn't a problem but getting it back in is always tough. So after several attempts and a couple of drops of the container I finally got the log back in. A quick return to its excellent hiding spot and homeward bound I go. But I had problems getting it to stick back where it belonged. And after the second attempt the container fell to the ground, into the snow!! Oh ....!!! I started looking everywhere on the floor but I could not find the tiny container! Did I mention I hate nano's? I was looking for 10 minutes when I looked over my shoulder to find the waiter and some customers from the restaurant right by GZ looking at this crazy white guy searching in the snow for what? I shrugged my shoulders at them and continued my search. Finally the waiter came out and gave me a flashlight to help look. When he asked me what I was looking for I mentioned geocaching and he said he had heard of it. After another 10 minutes a patron came out with his flashlight to help me search for the stinkin' thing. Finally after 25+minutes of seaching in the freezing cold I had to give up to catch my train home. I stopped in the White Horse Tavern to use the bathroom on the way out. Nice place!!

team pelagori, forgive me for having lost your cache. It is out there somewhere. I will contact you to arrange getting you a new container. In the mean time, I have learned a valuable lesson. Go caching BEFORE making my way to Down the Hatch.

***THE CACHE IS LOST***

:laughing: :laughing:

April 10, 2012

One of our most epic failures happened when we just started caching. We headed out to try for our first FTF which had just published like 3 miles away from home. We were the 1st and only cachers at GZ in a parking lot. The coords had us 30 ft from any bushes so we searched everything and came up empty so we left and went home to log our DNF. We watched the cache and someone had found the cache a couple days later and said it was easy. We head back out and same thing happens, the coords have us in the parking lot 30 ft away from any hiding spots. So we check the trees, bushes, tire stops and anything else that would hide a micro cache and came up empty again. Just as we were about to leave I check the structure where the GPS is pointing too and lift the skirt to find the container. :laughing: The coords were within 5ft. I never knew those lifted up until I started caching. :anibad: I still laugh at that caching experience/lesson.

1.4k · April 10, 2012

I didn't think I had anything to add to this thread, but here goes:

Found it

01/07/2012This cache ended up being a bit more of an adventure for me than I had anticipated. This cache is VERY close to the exceedingly nice Hobs Park Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is amazingly nice - it is new, modern, it has interestng exhibits and programs, and the staff is awesome. They have trail maps and geocaching information available in the visitor center, and the stff there is friendly and VERY happy to discuss geocaching - this has to be the most geocaching friendly park I've ever visited.

After picking up some trail maps, we decided to start with this cache, hey, it's RIGHT HERE, and may as well try to warm up a bit before trying some of the ones with longer hikes. Well, I'm glad I started with this one, because we hike over to ground zero, and I more or less just collapse. My vision goes blurry, I am nauseated, and I almost pass out - I felt like I'd been hit by a truck! I'd thought I was having an attack of hypoglycemia, so my wife walks back over to the visitor center, and one of the staff gives her a bottle of pepsi. She brings it back, I drink it and feel somewhat better (I can at least see again.) My wife finds the cache, we sign the log, and I go back to the visitor center for a while to rest up. (The staff at the visitor center was just incredibly kind during all of this.)

The cache itself is cleverly camo'd to blend in with the surroundings. It is nicely maintained, and had nice stuff in it, although I didn't trade anything. I considered taking the travel bug to Oklahoma, but I was doing pretty well to get myself back to the visitor center by that point!

I'll definitely return to find the other caches in this park - I'd definitely like to get further than about 600' from the visitor center!

Edit: added a favorite point to this cache because the staff are so awesome!

I ended up in the emergency room that night with very low blood pressure, severely dehydrated, and overwhelmingly nauseated. As best we can tell, I succumbed to some type of local virus that had been going around. The onset of this thing was the fastet I've ever experienced - I literally couldn't have been affected any faster if someone had hit me in the gut with a baseball bat.

This ended up being the only cache I found that weekend. I had big plans to cache in that park, and around Eureka Springs.

Glad you were/are alright Mr. Benchmark.

April 10, 2012

Glad you were/are alright Mr. Benchmark.

Thanks J!

I was really glad I was near the visitor center when this happened - I considered saving the easy, nearby cache for last and going for one of the more difficult ones. That would have been a disaster.

Hopefully this odd virus wasn't the precursor to the zombie apocalypse. If it turns out that it was, and I later turn into a zombie and end up eating one of y'all's brains while you are out on the trail, well, you have my sincerest apologies in advance! :anitongue:

3.4k · April 10, 2012

My most recent epic fail was going into the Geocoin forum. Ended up buying 4 more coins ...

7.9k · April 11, 2012

I don't have failures...only temporary setbacks.

April 11, 2012

I've only been at this not quite a year but here are a few of mine so far...

My 1st was one I headed out to find that took me to the middle of a gravel parking lot with nothing around. Embarassed to say even checked a few larger rock in this lot while scratching my head. Come to find out I needed to research what a chirp cache was...

My 2nd epic fail...was loding several caches into my gps, going to one and not finding, going to it a 2nd time not finding, trying again a 3rd time only to find out it didn't exist anymore (last time with new people I was showing geocaching to). No wonder I couldn't find it! Note to self: always update gps before heading out...

Oh, not a failure but I got my 1st tick in my 36 years of life when I started geocaching. Let me tell you, I'm a woman that doesn't deal well with bugs, let alone bugs that don't want to let go!!!

3.7k · April 11, 2012

And after the second attempt the container fell to the ground, into the snow!! Oh ....!!! I started looking everywhere on the floor but I could not find the tiny container! Did I mention I hate nano's? I was looking for 10 minutes when I looked over my shoulder to find the waiter and some customers from the restaurant right by GZ looking at this crazy white guy searching in the snow for what? I shrugged my shoulders at them and continued my search. Finally the waiter came out and gave me a flashlight to help look. When he asked me what I was looking for I mentioned geocaching and he said he had heard of it.

Had a similar experience to this with a nano. I was not drunk, however, it was dark and instead of the nano falling in snow, it fell into a prickle bush (I think). Nice muggle lady tried to help with a flashlight, but no luck after 1/2 hour search. Fortunatley the cache owner was very understanding.

April 11, 2012

:laughing:

:laughing: These are GREAT!!! Perhaps when I've been caching more than a month I will have some epic failures to report as well. Right now I have plenty of DNFs... but all due to being a newbie! I have to say that OzzOzz TICKLED me silly! I can definitely IMAGINE that happening to me!!! I'm actually worried about placing my first cache for that very reason! :rolleyes:

April 11, 2012

I picked up a Lego man TB that wanted to be photographed at any Lego locations. I took it with me to Legoland California and took 10+ pictures of it in, on, and around various attractions and lego structures within Legoland. Hoping, at the very least, some thanks from the TB owner for my thoughtfulness and effort, I posted the pictures and deposited the TB into a cache to have it moved along. A month later, the bomb squad blew the cache up with the TB inside it.

Bonus fail: I also deposited another TB into the same cache that was in a race with its twin to be the first to reach a million miles traveled. By the time it met its unfortunate demise at the hands of the bomb squad, the TB had traveled a whopping total 25 miles.

19k · April 11, 2012

Well, flunked first grade, got fired from the first job I ever had, my first girlfriend left me for another guy after dating for three years...

April 11, 2012

Well, flunked first grade, got fired from the first job I ever had, my first girlfriend left me for another guy after dating for three years...

Wait...wait...this is some country song isn't it?

19k · April 11, 2012

Well, flunked first grade, got fired from the first job I ever had, my first girlfriend left me for another guy after dating for three years...

Wait...wait...this is some country song isn't it?

Sorry, you're right. Wrong website. Another failure on my part.

April 11, 2012

Before I figured out that updated coordinates don't transfer from the website to my GPS, I spent a heck of a lot of time looking in the wrong place for an easy puzzle cache. :rolleyes:

And I'm starting to think we pass on some kind of curse to TBs because they tend to go missing after we've placed them.

April 11, 2012

I planned out a 13 cache trail run. I made sure to choose the longest day of the year (later sunset) so I would make sure to get out before sunset. Went to work an hour early so I could get off an hour early to utilize the extra hour of daylight. I did my homework to make sure the roads leading to the trail head wouldn't be a problem for a car with low clearance. I charged up my gps to make sure that I wouldn't run out of battery power during my run. Just in case I could be caught out on the trails after dark for any reason, I wore heavier than usual running clothes during a hot summer evening and strapped a small flashlight to me.

I got to the trail head only to discover that all the cache coordinates had failed to load properly to the gps. I ended up scrapping the cache hunt and just trail ran the route that day and was forced to bump my hunt over to the next week.

April 11, 2012

I was working on a puzzle cache once. Spent around 4 hours of company time trying to break the cipher. Only I misinterpreted the clues, and thought that the cache was in a bar. So, I lovingly suggest to my lady-friend that we should have dinner there.... then embarassed her by asking all the waitresses for the geocache. Then went to each of the bars in the place (there was 4!) for the geocache.

April 11, 2012

There was a trail of caches 30 miles from me in some gameland. This gameland, when the caches were hidden, was newly designated gameland is my guessing or at least was deforessted/replanted, so these caches were much more obtainable then. Along the access trail, ever single cache when the arrow pointed to them, was inaccesbile because of the growth - and this was during the winter time. The CO has been considering disabling them to rehide them closer to the access trial becuse this area cannot be hiked - even if you had machette.

5.6k · April 11, 2012

A week ago Saturday I didn't make it to the parking co-ords:

Full story starts here.

April 11, 2012

A week ago Saturday I didn't make it to the parking co-ords:

Full story starts here.

I'd say you have us all beat.

Short of death (which has sadly happened) this one is pretty bad.

2.5k · April 11, 2012

The DNF Logs tell it best:

Hipointer and Capiti Didn't find it 05/30/2007

After yesterday's success at Dream Lake, Hipointer and Too Tall John teamed up again today to see if we could also find this difficulty 5 cache. We got off to a bad start as we branched left a short ways up the Peabody Brook Trail on the wrong trail. The right trail has blue blazes at all junctions. We walked quite awhile before we realized we were on the wrong side of Peabody Brook. We wound up bushwhacking steeply down to the Brook, crossing it, and then bushwhacking steeply up to the correct trail. The trail to the Falls (unmarked) leaves on the left about 0.2 miles from the Falls. We found the large, flat rock and projected the coordinates to the cache. The route to the cache area is very steep, rocky terrain which we thought deserved a 4 or 4.5 difficulty rating. The terrain is the same at the cache coordinates and it was difficult to manuever around. GPS reception is also difficult here under the dense tree cover. We searched the area for over 1 1/2 hours and couldn't come up with the cache. This terrain is much more difficult to search than the terrain at Dream Lake and there are more hiding places. We think the time to look for this cache is late Fall when all the leaves are off the trees and GPS reception is better. This cache may now be the most difficult to find cache in New Hampshire!! We continue to marvel at how LandRocket found this cache at night! Maybe he got a glint from his headlamp. Anyhow, his find just adds to his legendary status among NH geocachers. It is a shame he is no longer with us.

Too Tall John Didn't find it 05/30/2007

Well...

This was one we'll remember for a while. Hipointer detailed the hunt pretty well, so I'll let his log speak for both of us. He didn't mention that when we returned to the car, he realized his keys were missing. Realizing that finding them on that slippery slope when we couldn't even find the cache was near to impossible, we gave a call out to Capiti, who lucky for us had remained behind for this one. Wait... did I say we called? That would have required cell service! Of which there wasn't any! We hiked to the nearby dam before we had a reliable signal. With help on the way, we got back to the car, but not before... well, we might have placed a cache... Anyways, it was a beautiful hike, a wonderful day, and good company, so a worthwhile time! Oh... and when we got back to the car? After Capiti yelled at Hipointer, he found a note on his windshield... The neighbors had found his keys on the trail we started up on! All's well that ends well!

One bad note: I JUST found a tick on me...

The worst DNF day I'll never forget resulted in 8 DNFs. It really all started with a cache I found:

Too Tall John Found it 11/23/2009
Had a fun time doing the "Mini Stud Run" with Hipointer. This series helped me to reach a personal best for most caches in a day! 43!!

I also managed to get a personal best (or worst...?) in DNFs in one day: 8!

I believe the DNF streak may have had something to do with this cache. Well, not this cache, per say, but whichever cache I had done after the last cache. See, when I started out for the day, I had found 1287 caches. I realized that I was going to find my 1300th cache on this run, and it was going to be the 13th cache I found during the day! Having 2 13s in such close relationship can never be a good thing, so I attribute finding this cache to my 8 DNFs.

#13 for the day!

#1300 overall!!!!

Then, the DNF's started:

Too Tall John Didn't Find It 11/23/2009

Wasn't in the obvious spot, which is where you could hope a 1.5 difficulty cache with no hint to be. Moved along.

Little did I know this was the first cache in a record string of DNFs for me...

Too Tall John Didn't Find It 11/23/2009

Between the fact that one of us had an outdated PQ and the fact that the new coords seemed to want to take us into the puckerbrush, Hipointer & I got frustrated with this one pretty quickly.

2nd of 8 DNFs for me today, a personal record!

Too Tall John Didn't Find It 11/23/2009

Out caching with Hipointer today, we didn't find this one. Too slippery with too many possible spots for my liking.

Watch out for rusty metal!

For several caches, I did something I never had done before: Cut-and-Paste DNF Logs!

Too Tall John Didn't Find It 11/23/2009

Ok, well, we were really getting into a groove now! Yet another DNF on my way to a personal record of 8 DNFs in a day!

All because of good old #13....

After several of those, I varied it a bit for the final DNF:

Too Tall John Didn't Find It 11/23/2009

Ok, well, we were really getting into a groove now! This was my final DNF on my way to a personal record of 8 DNFs in a day! I half wondered if I could say "I'm not dead yet!"

All because of good old #13.... (visit link)

Did find the glass mentioned in a previous log...

All because of good old #13....

Both days had memorable DNFs, but I would do them again in a second, because they were a blast!

3.7k · April 11, 2012

A week ago Saturday I didn't make it to the parking co-ords:

Full story starts here.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner!

April 11, 2012

Ya know I am going to zip line event near ashboro, nc on saturday, I dont need to be reading about "failed" days here :laughing:

5.6k · April 14, 2012

A week ago Saturday I didn't make it to the parking co-ords:

Full story starts here.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner!

I'm not sure I'm a "winner" - but it was an epic fail.

3k · April 14, 2012

I have DNF'd multiple magkey GRIMs.

I lost 2 nice pens in one day of urban caching.

April 14, 2012

My job has 6 caches within a quarter mile of it, and I have yet to find ONE. I'm there 40+ hours a week, and just stare out the back of the building into the woods.....rrrrr......I know they're there because of the logs...everybody else is finding them but me....so far...

Yes, this! It took me two months to finish a puzzle cache--the final spot was about 500' from my desk at work! I'd convinced myself that the cache was older than the newly built object it was hidden on, so it couldn't possibly be there. I'd looked in the area a few times--everywhere but where it was! That will teach me to pay attention to dates.

1.8k · April 14, 2012

Ahhhhhhh,

She was a blue eyed blonde, 5'7". Meaner than a snake, tongue that cut like a razor and vindictive as all get out. Destined to fail from the get go.

Talk about your failures

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