First to Find, But how many "Firsts"

[+kunarion]

I recently found one that had been sitting below a ridge, unfound for two or three weeks I guess I thought that somebody should go up there for it.

Some caches with no quick FTF have been hunted, but the cachers were too shy to do a DNF. So the FTF has the added challenge of finding a cache that's tricky to find, typically due to coordinates that are off (or it may be very temporary due to a creative yet very bad placement). You don't yet know if the coords lead to the cache, or if it can even be found, as posted. There's that little added uncertainty, and the fun of discovering something nobody else has. Plus the First To Find is the only one who finds the contents intact and dry, the hide exactly as the CO intended, and the container still having that New Cache Smell (of course that's the best part).

Edited August 30, 2012 by kunarion

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

You don't always need instant notification. My only FTF was out for a week before I found it. STF was a month after that. More recently, it went from November 2011 until August 2012 without a find.

 

Another example. 16 days before my FTF, and 2 motnhs til the next find.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

You don't always need instant notification.

 

Agreed. I just re-ran a set of pocket queries I created for a trip I'll be leaving on tomorrow morning. One of them is for the nearest caches within 100 miles of Kuching, Malaysia. Up until this morning that resulted in 9 caches. Now there are 10. There was a new cache placed about 3 miles from where I will be staying and as it turns out I've had a few email exchanges with the CO regarding one their other hides. Looking over the 10 caches, the last log on any of them was about three weeks ago so I suspect that there isn't a lot of geocaching going on in the area and there's a reasonably good chance that the new hide will not have been found by the time I get there on Sunday. It's been a long time since I actually *tried* to get a FTF on a cache but the opportunity to do so on a cache that is 9370 miles from home will be hard to pass up.

[+hzoi]

You don't always need instant notification. My only FTF was out for a week before I found it. STF was a month after that. More recently, it went from November 2011 until August 2012 without a find.

 

Another example. 16 days before my FTF, and 2 motnhs til the next find.

 

One of our last FTFs was on this cache. Just over six months from publication to my find, and no one has found it since I logged it last December, going on 9 months.

 

(It's not in the most accessible place in the world, I'll grant you.)

[+Don_J]

>the FTF happens within an hour, then the second to find often doesn't happen for days.

 

here FTF happen VERY fast..

and then next finds after days,

we have a sort of community agreement or call it a gentleman agreement arround here :

the first one who finds it, post a NOTE or found it log, from his phone in the field,

this way all other on the watchlist will be informed, and can deside if they continue to run,

drop it for now, or slow down,

 

 

I don't have one of those fancy phones. Does that mean that I can't play? I once logged a FTF four days after I found it. That was the soonest that I could get to a computer.

[+baloo&bd]

>the FTF happens within an hour, then the second to find often doesn't happen for days.

 

here FTF happen VERY fast..

and then next finds after days,

we have a sort of community agreement or call it a gentleman agreement arround here :

the first one who finds it, post a NOTE or found it log, from his phone in the field,

this way all other on the watchlist will be informed, and can deside if they continue to run,

drop it for now, or slow down,

 

 

I don't have one of those fancy phones. Does that mean that I can't play? I once logged a FTF four days after I found it. That was the soonest that I could get to a computer.

 

Many wait days, weeks, months or even more to log any caches. Perfectly acceptable whether you were first or fortieth to find, it doesn't really impact anyone one way or another. The only time you might consider rushing to log to be considerate is if there is a NM situation.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

You don't always need instant notification. My only FTF was out for a week before I found it. STF was a month after that. More recently, it went from November 2011 until August 2012 without a find.

 

Another example. 16 days before my FTF, and 2 motnhs til the next find.

 

One of our last FTFs was on this cache. Just over six months from publication to my find, and no one has found it since I logged it last December, going on 9 months.

 

(It's not in the most accessible place in the world, I'll grant you.)

 

Got the FTF! I found another cache a little bit later that hadn't been logged in a month but there was a name in the log sheet from a find earlier today.