Craziest distance from GZ find

[+HistDrew]

OK, so I'm going to claim what I think will be the furthest find from GZ ever (until the next poster comes along to say "Ah, but mine was yours+x")

 

So, a new cache popped up a couple of days ago, sort of near my house. I have my FTF search set at around 30 miles, and this was about 15 or so. I didn't have a chance to get to it right away, but I looked it over on the street and satellite maps. From the description and satellite it looked to be at a rest stop, though the satellite seemed to indicate that there wasn't really a rest stop there. Maybe a pull-off of some kind. But the location looked like it could also be accessible from a back road instead. I sort of knew the area and though "OK, I can get this."

 

So, a few days later, still nobody's found it. I drive up the highway, past the area, and see that there's no rest stop, but an old, covered-over pull-off. I stop the car on the shoulder and consider running the .64 miles to get to the cache. Hey, FTF, right? But I was late for work, and wearing slacks, button-down shirt, tie, etc. So I figured I’d come back later.

 

[Later] I decide to make this approach from off the highway, coming up the country lanes that look like they might provide access to the 1.5/1.5 cache. This was tricky, but I got close. Then the road ended in private property. Weird. I tried another direction. Also nothing. I checked the cache page, nobody had logged it yet. So I e-mailed the CO.

 

He came back with “Stumped? It’s right at the end of the dirt road.” I replied with my location, to which he replied “Oh, I thought you meant my other cache, ‘Stumped’. The one you’re looking for is in the Rest Area, right off the highway.”

 

I started to get a sinking feeling, but wrote back to say “there’s no rest area there.” After some crosstalk I sent my phone number. He called, with a caller ID location of Jackson, TN. About 200 miles away.

 

He insisted that the cache was right in the rest area. Easy to find. Plainly visible. In fact, he and his wife, kid, and mother-in-law stopped at that very rest stop and placed the cache as they were passing through the area.

 

I said, as I’m driving along, “listen, go look at the satellite picture and tell me what you see. It’s not at a rest stop.”

 

There was a long silence, and then “Oh. Wait. Hang on. That’s not right.”

 

Then came a long explanation about how they are new cachers and were passing through the area, and they were all excited to place a cache and so they put one at the rest stop. But they (claimed that they) used an iPhone to do it and the coordinates were off.

 

Now, I use an iPhone. I’m sometimes off by around 20 *feet*, and occasionally the direct gets goofy. But this is silly. I know the rest stop to which he was referring, it’s up the road “a fair piece,” as they say.

 

So I figured that since I had a bit of time, I’d drive up the road to get it. Unfortunately I didn’t realize quite how far away the real rest stop was. In the meantime, he’s calling me to apologize, talk about how much he loves caching, and to say that he knows exactly where the cache is because some other people already found it.

 

What?!

 

The day before, as it turned out, he directed his cousins to the cache by phone. And they were excited to find it and signed the log.

 

Great. So now I’m heading out of my way, and it’s not even an FTF any more. I’m such a sucker.

 

Finally I got to the cache. It was an easy find (once I was there). In fact, it was in plain sight, at the outlet to a drainage culvert. The first good rain that comes along will wash it away.

 

I texted the coordinates to the CO, who sent them to the reviewer with the note “coordinates were off. They were WAY off. Entered them wrong. Sorry! Blunder.”

 

How far off?

 

“Distance from original: 101030.7 feet or 30794.2 meters.”

 

19.1 miles. That’s gotta be some kind of record. I've let the reviewer know how far away the CO is based.

[+Isonzo Karst]

The day before, as it turned out, he directed his cousins to the cache by phone. And they were excited to find it and signed the log.

 

Great. So now I’m heading out of my way, and it’s not even an FTF any more. I’m such a sucker.

 

Yep, the casual player has no idea that the FTF has any special meaning for some players. But at least you got to supply some good coords.

 

Nice story, though. I like the touch about figuring his location from the caller ID phone number....

 

Of course, you're right too, about someone topping your story. I'd bet a number of people can.

 

I can - a cache published with an error in the Latitude Degrees, placing it 69 miles too far south ;-)

I thought I recognized the location from the write up, which mentioned "state forest" and "old mines" and made the find. I told the cache owner about the error, and a number of people near the cache's coords noted that they had to be wrong. He never corrected them - this was back when a cache owner could make an edit like that.

In fact, he just archived the listing, with the one find on it.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Isonzo Karst

[+cerberus1]

Sorry, far from a record. I'm not even close at + a hundred miles.

 

I look at caches individually on search. Recognzed the name and location on one, though the coords were well off. Less than ten miles away, headed out and by the hint, found the cache easily - FTF.

- Turns out he was off a digit for North.

I'm in the Poconos, coords where for outside Philly.

 

Odd thing was, two people claimed they found it, one saying "once again i forgot my fishing rod.. tfth/ sl" and the other, "I found the coords on the page and had a really fun time with mosquitoes... not what I think you had in mind though... Lots a fun" . Both of these guys had hides within ten miles of the coordinate error. One has almost eight thousand finds today.

- The hide was archived the next day after the coord flap, when the reviewer discovered it was on NPS property with a no-cache policy.

[knowschad]

Wow! That IS a pretty good stretch!

 

Here are a couple of older threads on the subject. I haven't scoured them... not sure if anybody in them has beat your distance.

 

Not a FTF, but one post in that first link talks about a find 100 miles from the posted coordinates!

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=206120

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=202840

[+Walts Hunting]

A few years ago I published one and made a typo for the coordinates (they didin't have the check on map feature on the submission page yet). It got published and shortly thereafter I got an email from someone who had it pop up on his just published notification asking me if I was siure since it seemed wrong. I checked and not only was at least 100 miles off but in a rugged area that is basically inaccessable. I disabled it and notified the reviewer who changed it.

 

I an betting his was a typo not a iPhone error.

[+Gustav129]

Oh I thought this thread was about distance from GZ (where the GPS says 0ft). So this is really about FTF furthest from home. I had a story (for distance from GZ), but my two FTF's were in my town.

[+DragonsWest]

I didn't make the find, but I did ask Jellis about a cache which was published, showing it was a few miles away from where I live, something bridge related in an area I knew to be deep forest. I enquired as to how best to approach this one and then it suddenly moved .. about 90 miles away.

 

Like to check those coords on the map before submitting.

[+T.D.M.22]

When I first used my phone our was over 3 thousand miles off. And I was looking for a micro, of course I didn't find it. Now I only use GPSr.

[+Viajero Perdido]

There was a cache in Uruguay that had never been found, maybe because there were a suspicious amount of zeroes in the coordinates, everything after both decimal points.

 

I was going to be in the area (one country over), and seriously contemplated giving it a try anyway. Satellite images showed the coords to be seriously wrong, and I spent some time in Google Earth trying to figure out if I could find it without the last three digits of South and West.

 

I decided, no, that's not likely to happen. And it's now archived, having never been found.

[I!]

Another one that really ought to be archived: Stridex Cache.

[+Viajero Perdido]

This one is similar. Coords were many kilometers off, deep in the jungle, but people figured out it's right in the middle of the region's biggest tourist trap and archaeological site.

 

Probably never would've been published with correct coords; I think archaeological sites are out of bounds. It's now gone.

[Andronicus]

A few years ago I published one and made a typo for the coordinates (they didin't have the check on map feature on the submission page yet). It got published and shortly thereafter I got an email from someone who had it pop up on his just published notification asking me if I was siure since it seemed wrong. I checked and not only was at least 100 miles off but in a rugged area that is basically inaccessable. I disabled it and notified the reviewer who changed it.

 

I an betting his was a typo not a iPhone error.

I did a similar thing. The maps were there, but never seemed to work. I was entering the cache from my phone while out camping Got the lattitude off by 1 minute. Once it was published, I immidiatly saw the error. I contacte the reviewer to have it changed, but I didn't think to disable it. One guy looked in the wrong spot before it was corrected. I felt pretty bad about that one ...

[Bolivar Bill]

My farthest was 6.99 miles off. The satellite map showed it on top of a hill with no roads and a 1.5/ 1.5 rating- no way. I used the name of the cache as my guide and found it pretty easily with no hints from the owner.

 

GC3MDZ2

[AA1PR]

Each time I list a cache I let the gps sit at the location in order to get the most accurate reading

 

however there are a few locals that like to go in & never let their gps settle down & get a true reading & would rather bad mouth me & send me nasty messages through the system here than find the cache

 

even though others have no problem find my caches these select few do

 

that is why I have lost interest here

[+Wintz50]

I got a ftf that was 80miles off. It was an earthcache and i was able to figure out the location from the listing.

[4wheelin_fool]

An early LPC - GCJ4FT was 2 minutes off and someone figured it out and made the FTF 3 years after it was archived. Coords were adjusted 12,152 feet and it was good to go.

[+Murazor]

I was close to an FTF 7368 km (4577 land miles, 3978 nautical miles) from my home location but the cache had been muggled before then...

 

As for a badly placed the location FTF I had one of about 80 meters (260 feet) from the listed coordinates.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Murazor

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I was close to an FTF 7368 km (4577 land miles, 3978 nautical miles) from my home location but the cache had been muggled before then...

 

As for a badly placed the location FTF I had one of about 80 meters (260 feet) from the listed coordinates.

 

There's another thread (probably buried in a couple of pages) which people have written about traveling long distances for a FTF. Mine was just under 9400 miles from home and there were several others that had longer distances. In my case, the cache was published on a Thursday morning, I was on a plane the next morning, but didn't get to my final destination (where I found the cache) in Malaysia until Sunday afternoon. I though I might have a good shot despite the time it took to get there as it's not a real active geocaching area where even the most frequently found caches might have 2-3 weeks in between logs.

 

I can't think of a FTF that I've had that was far from the posted coordinates, but there's a cache about .2 of a mile from me in a gorge that, when I found it, my GPS was telling me it had about 90' accuracy.

[+Viajero Perdido]

Lost cross in Montecristi, in an obscure corner of Dominican Republic, appears to be 180m off the coordinates. Not a record-setting amount for this thread, but a frustrating one for me. I went there hoping for a lonely FTF, but left with a frownie instead. (Apparently I'd come quite close to finding it, but by the time I found the "lost cross", I was sun-baked and tired, and just wanted to get out of there.)

 

The next person did indeed find it 180m away, and the only other two visitors after that claimed finds while admitting not finding it.

 

View from where the cache isn't - just a tumble from the ocean.

 

PS: In the small-world department, the only finder marooned a TB there that belongs to a buddy of mine. The buddy asked me to go pick it up.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Viajero Perdido

[Andronicus]

Lost cross in Montecristi, in an obscure corner of Dominican Republic, appears to be 180m off the coordinates. Not a record-setting amount for this thread, but a frustrating one for me. I went there hoping for a lonely FTF, but left with a frownie instead. (Apparently I'd come quite close to finding it, but by the time I found the "lost cross", I was sun-baked and tired, and just wanted to get out of there.)

 

The next person did indeed find it 180m away, and the only other two visitors after that claimed finds while admitting not finding it.

 

View from where the cache isn't - just a tumble from the ocean.

 

PS: In the small-world department, the only finder marooned a TB there that belongs to a buddy of mine. The buddy asked me to go pick it up.

Interesting cache. This one looks like it could be a good post for the "Found it = Didn't Find It" thread.

"Look, I didn't find it, but I tired hard, so I am going to count it". Good job people!

[+Gustav129]

I was at a cache, and my GPS started taking off, saying that I was traveling at 300mph and I was miles away from where I was at and climbing fast. I was standing still. I turned my GPS off and turned it back on. That's the closest I've had to a "furthest from GZ" find.