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FTF times


emmeany

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So... how often are new caches posted.... and where? For a specific area?

 

That really depends on the area. In some areas you might see at least a few posted every day within a 10 mile radius and if that area has a bunch of FTF hounds, the chance at getting FTF on a cache more than 10 miles away is very low. A few years ago over a four month period there were 6 new caches placed within 20 miles of me.

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I have one in the high country which is still waiting for its genuine* first to find after six weeks.

 

*Log was signed by cachers who were in town when I placed it but before it was published and without solving the puzzle to calculate the final coords.

 

I have a puzzle cache which has yet to be solved/logged after 12+ months.

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I've FTF'd a cache anywhere between 8 minutes after publication and 27 days after publication.

 

The 8 minute one was because there was three or four FTFs when I set out but after I had done the first cache, another 25 came out. I had just passed a couple so it was a quick turn about to grab them and then back along the other way. 28 FTFs that evening.

 

The 27 days one was a cave cache in an area where there is 6 caches with in 5 miles as the crow flies but more like 12 miles as the road goes. Certainly a favourite point on that one anyway.

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While I'm still new, I'm not particularly drawn to FTF, but I was curious how often new caches are posted. Mostly, because I will eventually do some hides and I suspect I'd be disappointed if I did such a poor hide that it was found inside of 24 hours. Then again... the FTF could be experienced and clever.

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Why in the world would you consider it a poor hide if someone can find it inside of 24 hours?

 

Probably because I'm always hard on myself when I take on a challenge, and I think "hiding a cache in plain sight" with a high degree of invisibility is a challenge I won't take lightly. Note that "poor hide" refers to my perceived ability; not that of others.

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My favorite FTF was about an hour from home. I was working way up in the mountains and I had just finished a job. I parked down the street and took out my phone to see what caches were in the area and what one I wanted to find for the day. I got a email and it was a new cache. I pulled it up and it was right where I was. I hit navigate and it said 30 min? So I looked at the map. Took a turn the other way and it said 1 min. I was there probably in 2 min. I took one wrong walk up the hill and seen I was wrong and went back down and it was right there. Maybe 4 min until the find. I signed it and replaced it and wrote the log on site. The CO posted that had to be a record to get a FTF in about 7-8 min or whatever. I messaged her and let her know it was found in probably about 4 min after. It was extra fun being so far from home.

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Probably because I'm always hard on myself when I take on a challenge, and I think "hiding a cache in plain sight" with a high degree of invisibility is a challenge I won't take lightly. Note that "poor hide" refers to my perceived ability; not that of others.
If you hide a high-difficulty camouflaged cache like that, then be sure to put it somewhere that can withstand the stress from repeated prolonged searches. I enjoy the challenge of finding such caches, as long as everyone's searches aren't trashing the location.
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There were a couple around here recently which were actually found and log signed as FTF, before it had officially been published. By what i gather from the logs, the Co had said they were placing a cache and shown some photo's on Facebook, the sneaky cachers, took a guess that the cache had been hidden near where the photo was taken, and by chance found it.

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While I'm still new, I'm not particularly drawn to FTF, but I was curious how often new caches are posted. Mostly, because I will eventually do some hides and I suspect I'd be disappointed if I did such a poor hide that it was found inside of 24 hours. Then again... the FTF could be experienced and clever.

 

It will vary by area, but most (80-90%) caches are fairly easy for cachers to find, especially if a hint is given. They may be (and should be) well hidden from muggles. In a busy area I would expect FTF on most caches within 24 hours; often within a few hours.. or even minutes. That doesn't mean every cacher will find it - I've had lots of DNFs on caches everyone else found easily. But someone will find it and likely fairly quickly.

 

There are hides which are just difficult to find. There are also difficult puzzle caches. These could have days/weeks (sometimes months/years) before FTF. These are relatively rare though.

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An easy cache, 15 minutes walk from public communication and parking place, on a heavily used path in public forest, at least 200 active geocachers living in a city, at least 10 active geocachers living in 5km radius from cache - and nobody cared to go to cache for 9 days now (and still counting up).

 

Edit: Somebody went there and decided to find it at least.

Edited by lowca
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There were a couple around here recently which were actually found and log signed as FTF, before it had officially been published. By what i gather from the logs, the Co had said they were placing a cache and shown some photo's on Facebook, the sneaky cachers, took a guess that the cache had been hidden near where the photo was taken, and by chance found it.

 

To my way of playing the game, that isn't FTF, that's bucking the system. (Which is why I say that I am still waiting for genuine FTF on a puzzle cache I placed last November. The pair who signed the log just happened to be in town the day I physically placed the cache. Kind of wish I hadn't talked about placing the cache with them.)

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There were a couple around here recently which were actually found and log signed as FTF, before it had officially been published. By what i gather from the logs, the Co had said they were placing a cache and shown some photo's on Facebook, the sneaky cachers, took a guess that the cache had been hidden near where the photo was taken, and by chance found it.

 

To my way of playing the game, that isn't FTF, that's bucking the system. (Which is why I say that I am still waiting for genuine FTF on a puzzle cache I placed last November. The pair who signed the log just happened to be in town the day I physically placed the cache. Kind of wish I hadn't talked about placing the cache with them.)

 

I see it differently, pretty smart actually and as for your cache, FTF is a fact, not a prize.

Edited by Roman!
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My personal record is a week before publishing. A cacher friend and I were pretty sure the final to a tough puzzle was in this certain section of forest, and we intended to find it by brute force. But before we could find that, we tripped across this instead:

 

5424e995-e20d-4849-af92-d7bc3fdc2afc.jpg

That's me looking for the logbook. The shelves weren't fully stocked yet.

 

PS, the "official" FTF-er a week later (after publishing) left a TV.

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In Sept. 2009 I saw a cache published on a Thursday morning. I got on an airplane the next morning for a two hour flight to NYC, then a 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, had a four hour layover, then a 6 hour flight to SIngapore. I checked into the airport hotel and left in the morning on a two hour flight to Malaysia and got to my hotel around noon, Sunday afternoon. Then I took a cab to a nearby park where the cache was located, found the cache and was first to find. Someone else found it the next day, then it wasn't found again for about a month (by someone that lives nearby). It's only been found 9 times. There isn't a lot of active geocaching in that part of Malaysia (Kuching).

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In Sept. 2009 I saw a cache published on a Thursday morning. I got on an airplane the next morning for a two hour flight to NYC, then a 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, had a four hour layover, then a 6 hour flight to SIngapore. I checked into the airport hotel and left in the morning on a two hour flight to Malaysia and got to my hotel around noon, Sunday afternoon. Then I took a cab to a nearby park where the cache was located, found the cache and was first to find. Someone else found it the next day, then it wasn't found again for about a month (by someone that lives nearby). It's only been found 9 times. There isn't a lot of active geocaching in that part of Malaysia (Kuching).

 

So, about 48 hours of travel & almost halfway around the world for a FTF - veeery impressive! :ph34r::grin:

 

And don't tell me it was for business! :laughing:

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I still believe my cache is one of the fastest. It was fast to get publish and fast to be found. And it really helps if you submit it next to a Lackey who publishes it at event with attendees not knowing a cache would go live while they are eating. Then watch as all the phones go off and they get up and run. It's archived now. My cache

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In Sept. 2009 I saw a cache published on a Thursday morning. I got on an airplane the next morning for a two hour flight to NYC, then a 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, had a four hour layover, then a 6 hour flight to SIngapore. I checked into the airport hotel and left in the morning on a two hour flight to Malaysia and got to my hotel around noon, Sunday afternoon. Then I took a cab to a nearby park where the cache was located, found the cache and was first to find. Someone else found it the next day, then it wasn't found again for about a month (by someone that lives nearby). It's only been found 9 times. There isn't a lot of active geocaching in that part of Malaysia (Kuching).

 

So, about 48 hours of travel & almost halfway around the world for a FTF - veeery impressive! :ph34r::grin:

 

And don't tell me it was for business! :laughing:

 

I FTF'ed a cache on Guam about 3 weeks after it was published! A great hike through the forests, up a hill, past an old brick dam, and up to a view of the city. Great cache.

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In Sept. 2009 I saw a cache published on a Thursday morning. I got on an airplane the next morning for a two hour flight to NYC, then a 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, had a four hour layover, then a 6 hour flight to SIngapore. I checked into the airport hotel and left in the morning on a two hour flight to Malaysia and got to my hotel around noon, Sunday afternoon. Then I took a cab to a nearby park where the cache was located, found the cache and was first to find. Someone else found it the next day, then it wasn't found again for about a month (by someone that lives nearby). It's only been found 9 times. There isn't a lot of active geocaching in that part of Malaysia (Kuching).

 

So, about 48 hours of travel & almost halfway around the world for a FTF - veeery impressive! :ph34r::grin:

 

And don't tell me it was for business! :laughing:

 

I can't do that. I was leading a half day workshop at a 3 day conference there. Another regular poster here from Canada was in the same city few weeks later and he also got a FTF on a different cache. That one had been place for 6 months before he found it and it's only been found twice since.

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That would be me, and thanks for leaving the second one untouched. :) Yeah, not a whole lot of caching activity in that part of Borneo.

 

I do that sometimes - if there are two potential FTFs somewhere, I'll grab one and leave the other for someone else.

 

I've done the same thing. Several years ago there were 9 new caches placed in the area associated with an 09/09/09 event. I took the day off an got FTF on three of them in the morning, then went off to brunch for a couple of hours, when I went out again a couple of other people had found the remaining caches. Spread the joy.

 

If that one I found in Kuching wasn't placed I might have considered going out for the one you found but it was a bit of a trip from my hotel and I didn't have a rental car. I don't remember if you went out to try and find that Gliding Hornbill cache (it was missing when I was there) but a local cacher replaced it and has been maintaining it for the last few years (the original CO hasn't logged on since 2005). I just checked on it and a reviewer has posted a note that it might be archived because the "Needs Maintenance" icon hasn't been cleared. Of course that local maintainer can't clear the flag but it appears that if he continues to maintain it and DNF logs don't pile up (or someone posts a N/A log) the reviewer will allow it to continue.

 

 

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My personal record is a week before publishing. A cacher friend and I were pretty sure the final to a tough puzzle was in this certain section of forest, and we intended to find it by brute force. But before we could find that, we tripped across this instead:

 

5424e995-e20d-4849-af92-d7bc3fdc2afc.jpg

That's me looking for the logbook. The shelves weren't fully stocked yet.

 

PS, the "official" FTF-er a week later (after publishing) left a TV.

 

Good thing there was snow, otherwise it would have completely blended in with all that camo. :laughing:

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In Sept. 2009 I saw a cache published on a Thursday morning. I got on an airplane the next morning for a two hour flight to NYC, then a 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, had a four hour layover, then a 6 hour flight to SIngapore. I checked into the airport hotel and left in the morning on a two hour flight to Malaysia and got to my hotel around noon, Sunday afternoon. Then I took a cab to a nearby park where the cache was located, found the cache and was first to find. Someone else found it the next day, then it wasn't found again for about a month (by someone that lives nearby). It's only been found 9 times. There isn't a lot of active geocaching in that part of Malaysia (Kuching).

 

So, about 48 hours of travel & almost halfway around the world for a FTF - veeery impressive! :ph34r::grin:

 

And don't tell me it was for business! :laughing:

 

Hmmm...can we set a notification radius for 12000 miles? :anibad:

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In Sept. 2009 I saw a cache published on a Thursday morning. I got on an airplane the next morning for a two hour flight to NYC, then a 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, had a four hour layover, then a 6 hour flight to SIngapore. I checked into the airport hotel and left in the morning on a two hour flight to Malaysia and got to my hotel around noon, Sunday afternoon. Then I took a cab to a nearby park where the cache was located, found the cache and was first to find. Someone else found it the next day, then it wasn't found again for about a month (by someone that lives nearby). It's only been found 9 times. There isn't a lot of active geocaching in that part of Malaysia (Kuching).

 

So, about 48 hours of travel & almost halfway around the world for a FTF - veeery impressive! :ph34r::grin:

 

And don't tell me it was for business! :laughing:

 

Hmmm...can we set a notification radius for 12000 miles? :anibad:

 

No, but a PQ of the area with a radius of 200 miles only returns 16 caches. Two of them (one placed in 2011) have not yet been found. No...I'm not going buy plane tickets to go try for them

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That would be me, and thanks for leaving the second one untouched. :) Yeah, not a whole lot of caching activity in that part of Borneo.

 

I do that sometimes - if there are two potential FTFs somewhere, I'll grab one and leave the other for someone else.

I've done the same thing. Several years ago there were 9 new caches placed in the area associated with an 09/09/09 event. I took the day off an got FTF on three of them in the morning, then went off to brunch for a couple of hours, when I went out again a couple of other people had found the remaining caches. Spread the joy.

Most of my caching is longer walks and even though I don't go out with the FTF goal any longer, it happens.

Seems folks simply don't walk much in this hobby anymore.

If a buncha FTFs are out in an area I was headed too anyway, I'll walk to the farthest one first, turn around and head back to parking.

If it was on a loop and a great spot, I can hit it again when not caching.

Often it ends up I'm FTF on all many hours later.

Maybe the real FTF hounds today see the truck and don't bother. I don't know why that happens.

 

From when we started to just two years ago though, all bets'd be off when my 2/3rds cache monster got into a group of FTFs. :)

Edited by cerberus1
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Two of them (one placed in 2011) have not yet been found. No...I'm not going buy plane tickets to go try for them

I would buy plane tickets for a 5-year FTF. (And did once...) Hmm, that'd be 2016 if that one still hasn't been found by then. Gotta remember to check back next year.

 

I just said that to make you *think* I wasn't going to go for the FTF. The race is on! Eat my vapor trails, Perdido. big_smile.gif

 

 

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