Longest Time Before Ftf

November 24, 2004

I hid a cache a week and a half ago and it still hasn't been found. That got me to wondering ... what's the longest period ever between hiding a cache and FTF?

Can anyone beat a week and a half and still going? :laughing:

5.3k · November 24, 2004

It depends on were the cache is

If the area is populated with lots of cachers it may only take a few hours to be found. Were I am there are several of us that want to be the FTF, I have been known to leave at or later midnight to get a FTF.

Edited November 24, 2004 by JohnnyVegas

November 24, 2004

Here is one that has been waiting since July,2002:

Butte of a View

November 24, 2004

This one was placed on 26 January 2002 at not been found yet , but by the owner when he placed TB Blue Duck in 20 September 2004.

It is Dawn Treat (GC3536 ) near Napier in New Zealand

November 24, 2004

Here is one that has been waiting 18 months and is only 1/2 mile from a dirt road.

The Wickiup

November 24, 2004

OK, so GC3536 has been out there almost 3 years. I did a Waypoint search on GC3536, however, and nothing came up. That could make a cache tough to find.

My relatively young cache is less than 200 yards from the parking area of an off-road vehicle (ORV) park used every weekend. Hard to believe no one's found it yet!

November 24, 2004

Hi Mudinyeri, Here's a link to the unfound New Zealand cache, GC3536.

I looked at your Rock Garden cache (GCM26K). I'm not surprised it hasn't been found yet. It has only been a couple weeks, and the cache description makes it very clear that it's a difficult find--with special equipment suggested even. Also, why double encrypt the hint? I could understand if you gave a nudge in ROT13 and double encrypted a more obvious spoiler. Just curious.

I'm sure some adventurous sort will go get it soon, but most people will be intimidated by the description. Maybe you need to start advertising geocaching with the Trail Krawlers. Bring in some new members to the caching game and get some logs on your hide at the same time.

Steve in Seattle (too far to give it try :laughing: )

1.1k · November 24, 2004

Placed 05-26-01, First found 06-01-2003, 2nd time was 04-09-04. Wanna be third?

We also have one out yet to be found after 7 weeks and several with only a few finds after several years. It'll get hit sooner or later.

If there are no close by caches, plant a few more easy ones around and you will attract more people who might give it a shot just because they are in the area.

logscaler.

38.2k · November 24, 2004

A cache I placed recently went 5 days before the FTF. Most of mine go several days before they are found. I think the number of caches in this area means that new ones get lost in the shuffle.

The record around here is the 11 months that Melvin's Muliple Madness went before the FTF.

Though 11 months isn't extreme, it is when you consider that the cache is in the middle of the most densely populated state in the country and within a 30 minute drive of some 15 million people. That and its within a half mile of the Garden State Parkway, which is one of the state's most heavily travelled roads.

November 24, 2004

Maybe you need to start advertising geocaching with the Trail Krawlers. Bring in some new members to the caching game and get some logs on your hide at the same time.

I have been evangelizing Geocaching amongst the TK crowd. That's one of the reasons I double encrypted the hint. Most of them know the territory so well they notice any rock that's been moved! :laughing:

Also, I'd like this to be interactive. I want the searchers to e-mail me. I have visual clues and other clues I can provide if people can't get the double encrypted hint.

November 24, 2004

Caches up here tend to go a long time before being found or between finds. For example, I was 2TF on our oldest cache, Scout Lake Road, placed in May of 2001. It has since been found again -- twice in one year! (We're having a caching explosion...)

Our second oldest cache, Icefield Discovery, was placed June 9, 2001 and has yet to be found by anyone who is caching, although it was found once accidentally.

I myself placed five caches between August and October of this year. So far, two have been found once -- by the same person -- and three not at all. My bets are that Golden Horn will go the longest without a logged find. I figure 50% chance it doesn't get one next year.

It's strange that so many people come to the Yukon for the wilderness experience, but no one finds the wilderness caches. Our few park 'n grab type caches get a lot of finds.

Regards,

Anthony

November 24, 2004

Here is one that has been waiting since July,2002:
Butte of a View

I thought we were not supposed to put caches in wilderness areas.

38.2k · November 24, 2004

Here is one that has been waiting since July,2002:
Butte of a View

I thought we were not supposed to put caches in wilderness areas.

Some wilderness areas ban them and some don't. There is no blanket ban in wilderness area.

4.8k · November 24, 2004

Since your cache is in a more rural part of Kansas and also requires dealing with some terrain, it might take awhile. There just aren't as many cachers that get to that area and rural caches always tend to have less vistors. The upcoming holidays could affect things too.

I am keeping it in mind for a day when I have time to drive down there. It looks like a fun cache. That probably won't be until after Christmas though.

2.5k · November 24, 2004

The more difficult the cache, and the less caches around it, the longer it will go without being found. Plain and simple.

I have 9 caches. Two of my 9 caches are in Ashtabula county, Ohio, where there aren't many caches or cachers, although it is the middle point between Erie, PA and Cleveland. One is a park and grab, literally two steps from the road, has been found 25 times, the first find coming 2 days after approval from a group of cachers heading from one big city to the other. It was out for over four months before a cacher from the county found it.

My other cache in the county sat for 10 days, was found twice, has two dnfs (the cache is still there).. the last found log was Sept 5.

My other caches, 2 are slightly over an hour from Nashville. Of those, one is just off the interstate, found 4 days after I hid it, but not found since just before Halloween. The other one in that area is about 15 miles from that cache (few roads to get there) Was found 10 days after I hid it, found the day after the first find, and last found Nov 3.

The 5 in Nashville - my first nashville cache a 10-20 foot walk from the parking - first found 4 days after hiding, found 24 times, most recently the 14th.

The second one - .5 mile from the first one, 300 feet into the woods - hid 9/29 found first 10/1, found 10 times, most recent 11/21

The third one - micro under a lightpole - hid 10/7, first found 10/9, 11 finders: last find 11/21

Then, two three-step multis: one, hidden 10/22, found once 10/25.... the other, hidden 10/21, found 10/24 and 11/14

Just listing them as examples... Area, cache type, etc.. has a lot to do with how often a cache is found. Weather plays a big part in it, too... I don't expect either of my Ohio caches to be found once there's two feet of snow on the ground.

November 24, 2004

There are 6 caches awaiting finders near here: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...c4-5b0187be13c3 , the oldest placed a year ago. It's a long drive in, but located between two very cache-crazy regions, San Francisco and LA.

Edited November 24, 2004 by workerofwood

4.8k · November 24, 2004

I forgot to add in my first post that a week and a half is pretty common for anything rural in the midwest. Even a fairly simple cache placed during perfect weather can sit for weeks before a ftf when it is rural. There are simply less cachers inclined to go for the rural ones.

Someone will get there though!

November 25, 2004

Here is one that has been waiting since July,2002:
Butte of a View

Ohhhh!! I wanna find this one! There ain't any like this anywhere near me!

November 26, 2004

Here is one that has been waiting since July,2002:
Butte of a View

Well, yeah ... look at the terrain and difficulty! Needless to say, if this one was any closer to where I live, I'd likely be the FTF.

This is on my spring time wish list. But living in Pennsylvania, I don't know if I can get the one plus week off needed to log this cache. But if I do, I will be packing an ammo can to replace the orginal container.

November 28, 2004

Around here in southeastern Michigan people run out of their houses at all hours (day or night) to be the first to find. We just posted our first virtual cache tonight and can't wait until it's approved. I'm wondering how long it will take before somebody hits it. Of course, virtual caches are not the hottest things on everyone's list of must do's but I'm still curious as to how long it will take to get a first finder...

Jon.

4.8k · November 28, 2004

I saw this one (Diablo) wayback in the Seven Devils of Idaho. Planted Sept, 2002; FTF July, 2004. Nice area, but a bit too far for us.

2.7k · November 28, 2004

Here is one that has been waiting since July,2002:
Butte of a View

I thought we were not supposed to put caches in wilderness areas.

You are thinking of National Parks. YOu can place caches in Wildernesses. Anyhow looks like I need to give this one a look when snow melts.

November 28, 2004

Well it is odd that most of these haven't been found but think of this do you want to hide up a mountain to get?

2.7k · November 28, 2004

Well it is odd that most of these haven't been found but think of this do you want to hide up a mountain to get?

Did you mean hike? I do! Peak bagging is the best.

1.2k · November 28, 2004

Here is one that has been waiting since July,2002:
Butte of a View

HA! Stick a shiny gold coin in the thing... see what happens THEN! <_<

(Of course, you don't have to tell anyone that it's just a little bitty 1-tenth of an ounce gold coin...)

Edited November 28, 2004 by Sparrowhawk

December 1, 2004

There's an idea ... a gold coin. With the price of gold skyrocketing that might get someone out to my cache. (Still no finds.)

December 1, 2004

My relatively young cache is less than 200 yards from the parking area of an off-road vehicle (ORV) park used every weekend. Hard to believe no one's found it yet!

I found a cache just last weekend and it was my first FTF. I don't go chasing FTF's because there are so many cachers in my area that chase FTF's and they have on average about 1,000 finds each. I am at 115, so I have wat too much competition. But I digress...

My FTF last week is placed much like yours. About 200 yards off of good parking and flat terrain. It was there over a week before I decided that no one else wanted that FTF. And the thing is that cache is in a good traffic area that is off a main road into the mountians.

Anyway, Good luck on your cache.

Ken

December 1, 2004

I was amazed this one was hit so soon, but then it has been quiet since. I guess the rush to FTF is the most popular game... Than again, so few locations and content seem to be worth the trek. Far too many stale fish in the pond I guess.

Off the Rocker

December 23, 2004

Still waiting on a FTF for my Rock Garden Trail cache hidden November 12th.

December 23, 2004

A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma has been out since February of 04, but it is a fairly difficult encryption. Tough puzzle caches often sit out there a long time. However, Shakespeare in the Park is just your run of the mill evil micro, and it has remained unfound since it was hidden on June 28th. I am thinking about upping the ante on the Riddle cache and offering a $50 FTF prize, if it goes past a year I may do that.

December 24, 2004

I don't have any records for the longest time but the shortest was about 30 minutes on some of the caches in my area, with all the FTF go-getters around here.

Merry Christmas <_<

Edited December 24, 2004 by camo-crazed

June 27, 2019

How about 16 years? True, cache was archived but it was never found and still hidden at it's original place.

https://coord.info/GCTCEZ

6.2k · June 27, 2019

I guess is Conch Shell Horn

14k · June 27, 2019

37 minutes ago, RuideAlmeida said:

I guess is Conch Shell Horn

Although the previous post bumped a 15 year old thread, you may be right. I don't remember how old 4.5 Walleye was before it was found but the thread started the finders embarked on their journey to find it was very interesting.

June 27, 2019

I just got a FTF on a cache 2094 days after it was published

June 27, 2019

This one has been hidden 11 years ago and still waiting for FTF

Edited June 27, 2019 by EggsTheBest

4.5k · June 27, 2019

Here the FTF is often claimed within 15 minutes; rarely longer than an hour, unless it's after midnight and it's in a hard to get to place, such as an island in the lake. But very little stops those who want the FTF from rushing out immediately. My 'maddest' attempt at FTF was midnight and with a lot of large blackberry bushes to negotiate over several hundred metres from where two of us left the car. However, I rarely try for FTF.

The longest not found FTF that I personally hoped to find, hadn't been found for about eight months. It was on the Chatham Islands and I had a visit booked. Someone arrived two weeks before me and got the FTF ☹️. The longest FTF from publication until I logged it was just over a week. Several caches out in the country and small towns.

Edited June 27, 2019 by Goldenwattle

4.5k · June 27, 2019

27 minutes ago, EggsTheBest said:

This one has been hidden 11 years ago and still waiting for FTF

WOW, a 140 km long canoe trip.

14k · June 27, 2019

9 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

WOW, a 140 km long canoe trip.

I don't recall how long the canoe trip was for 4.5 pound Walleye but, if I recall, it took them at about 3 days from where they launched to get to GZ. At the time, it was the longest unfound cache with Kougarak and Conch Shell Horn and being the next two (pubished in June and July, 2001 respectively). Kougarak was "found" in 2016, but a reading of the log indicates that it was a throw down. It sounded like the "finder" gave a thorough search (with a metal detector) so Kougarak is likely no longer there. Conch Shell Horn is likely the oldest unfound cache in the world, but it hasn't been confirmed that it's still there either. I looked into the logistics for getting to the island that it's on and it would be a fair challenge but doable if two or more people got together to charter or hire a boat.

June 27, 2019

Well, the topic is time from hiding to FTF, so I'm not sure talking about hides yet to be found are pertinent here :tongue:

This cache was recently first found after about 12 years, 7 months: GMT II -- It's All Phil's Fault

4.5k · June 28, 2019

8 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I looked into the logistics for getting to the island that it's on and it would be a fair challenge but doable if two or more people got together to charter or hire a boat.

LOL, but then you will get some people (not me) stating that only one of you can claim the FTF.

June 28, 2019

I regularly have Earthcaches go several months to a year before being found.

Granted some of them are in remote locales, and I think the lack of a physical container is off-putting to some.

June 29, 2019

Not quite as old as some, but the political and safety challenges make this FTF opportunity an interesting 8 year old opportunity on the Syrian coast.

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2NTNN

5.8k · June 29, 2019

2 hours ago, Alkhalikoi said:

Not quite as old as some, but the political and safety challenges make this FTF opportunity an interesting 8 year old opportunity on the Syrian coast.

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2NTNN

Odd that the cache is locked, for some reason. Odder that there is no written explanation why the cache is locked.

June 29, 2019

I've been looking at that cache now and again (I like to poke around the site for caches in faraway and dangerous spots) and hadn't noticed it being locked before. Now I see that all caches in Syria (about 10 of them?) are locked. Probably for the best, but I hope I haven't prevented someone from risking their life for an FTF smiley!

Edited June 29, 2019 by Alkhalikoi

3.7k · July 3, 2019

Well, I've had several mystery caches that went quite some time before being found. One went almost four years before a find (October 2014 to June 2018).

Currently, I have four unfound mystery caches: one from April 2018, two from August 2018 and one from November 2018.

3.7k · July 3, 2019

Just got an FTF today for a cache that was published on 6/25...so a week and a day, which is actually a long time to go unfound here in metro Atlanta. Generally it's rare for a new cache to go unfound for more than a few hours...a day at most.

March 9

Hi everyone, I remember being on one of these forums or some reddit page and reading about a cache that was hidden by a someone who had a group of friends who were all cachers. It was really hard and had a lot of dnfs and went months/year before finally one of the friends found it. It was a really wholesome story and I now can't the find cache. Can anyone help?

Longest Time Before Ftf

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